Microsoft Excel Programming Tutorial

As you probably know, Microsoft Excel is an electronic worksheet you can use for a variety of purposes, including the following: maintain lists; perform mathematical, financial, and statistical calculations; create charts; analyze your data with PivotTables; locate data; find trends in your data; and present your data to others.

This book is about automating the tasks you perform in Excel by using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). You can use VBA to automate those repetitive tasks you perform frequently. For example, if the layout of your monthly report rarely changes, you can use VBA to set up your report each month. VBA is a programming language; however, you do not have to be a programmer to automate the tasks you perform in Excel.

You can also automate a task by using the macro recorder to create a macro. A macro is a recording of the steps you want to automate. You just click a button to turn on the macro recorder and begin performing the steps as you normally would. Excel records each step and creates the VBA code. When you finish, you click the Stop Record button. When you select your macro in the Macro dialog box and then click the Run button, Excel plays back the steps you recorded. For example, if you record the steps necessary to set up your monthly report, all you have to do each month thereafter is click a button and Excel automatically sets up your report.

With VBA, you can do more than just create macros. You can use VBA to edit macros, create new functions, create custom applications, and create add-ins. For these tasks, you must learn the VBA programming language. This book teaches VBA. It is based on Office 2010. Code you write for Office 2010 may not be compatible with earlier versions of Excel.

This book is for advanced computer users who want to take their knowledge of this particular technology or software application to the next level. This book also provides a step-by-step format to guide you easily through each task. Numbered steps are actions you must do; bulleted steps clarify a point, step, or optional feature; and indented steps give you the result.