Excel VBA 24-Hour Trainer, 2nd Edition

Lesson 2Getting Started with Macros

In Lesson 1, you read that VBA is the programming language of Microsoft Excel and that a macro is a sequence of VBA commands to run a task automatically instead of manually. In this lesson, you find out how to create a simple macro, what its code looks like, and a few options for how you can run the macro.

Composing Your First Macro

This lesson leads you through the process of composing a macro to sort and format a range of data. But even before the first line of programming code is written, you need to set up shop by giving yourself easy access to the VBA-related tools you'll be using. The following housekeeping items usually need to be done only once, and it's worth taking the time to do them now if you haven't already done so.

Accessing the VBA Environment

At the time of this writing, Excel is at a unique stage in its ongoing evolution because four of its versions are being used with significant popularity in the Microsoft Office suite of applications. Version 2003 (also known as version 11) was the final Excel version with the traditional menu bar interface of File, Edit, View, and so on. Then came version 2007 (also known as version 12), blazing the trail for Office's new Ribbon interface. Three years later, version 2010 (also known as version 14) was the next release from Redmond. Most recently, version 2013 (also known as version 15) has taken its place among the community of Excel versions that are being used around the world. ...