Excel 2013 Bible

Chapter 38: Introducing Visual Basic for Applications

In This Chapter

Introducing VBA macros

Creating VBA macros

Recording VBA macros

Writing VBA code

Learning more about VBA

This chapter is an introduction to the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macro language — a key component for users who want to customize and automate Excel. This chapter teaches you how to record macros and create simple macro procedures. Subsequent chapters expand upon the topics in this chapter.

Introducing VBA Macros

A macro is a sequence of instructions that automates some aspect of Excel so that you can work more efficiently and with fewer errors. You may create a macro, for example, to format and print your month-end sales report. After the macro is developed, you can then execute the macro to perform many time-consuming procedures automatically.

You don't have to be a power user to create and use simple VBA macros. Casual users can simply turn on Excel's macro recorder: Excel records your actions and converts them into a VBA macro. When you execute this macro, Excel performs the actions again. More advanced users, though, can write code that tells Excel to perform tasks that can't be recorded. For example, you can write procedures that display custom dialog boxes, or process data in a series of workbooks, and even create special-purpose add-ins.

What You Can Do with VBA

VBA is an extremely rich programming language with thousands of uses. The following list contains just a few things that you ...