Advise re: VBA

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Guest

I've been using excel for a while. Except for a class in
programming "Basic", I have no real programming
experience.

However, I'd still like to learn VBA? How long should you
have been working with Excel before starting?

Sheryl
 
Sheryl,

A pretty wide open question . . . but I would answer it with whenever
you want to learn it!

I got my feet wet with VBA by recording a couple of macros and then
looking at the code the "recorder" built compared with the steps I
performed while recording. And then, if you think something can be
done, it probably can be. VBA Help was also, and still is, my best
friend in learning what commands are available as well as a good source
of examples.

Hope this helps!

JerryG :)
 
Sheryl,

There is no hard and fast rule as how long you need to work
with Excel before using VBA. You can start learning both
at the same time.
When using Excel, I'm sure that you've run into tasks that
you do repetitively. This is when the light bulb should go
off and you say "Hmmmm?? I wonder if there's a way to make
this easier??
That's where VBA comes in handy.
There are also a lot of things in Excel that just can't be done
without using VBA.
First thing that I'd suggest is to pick a repetitive task that you
do and "Record" a macro to do it.
Then try running that macro when you need to do the same task again.

David McRitchie has some links to tutorials about 2/3 of the way
down on this page:
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm

One of those links is to VBA 101 from Microsoft:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=/support/excel/content/vba101/default.asp

John
 
Thanks *s
I already tried to do some formatting Macros but ran into
trouble when I wanted to use the [down][end] combination
to locate the next subtotal. I used the buttons when
recording the macro, but when I re-ran the macro it simply
went to the same cell location as before (although all the
subtotals had moved since I was working with another list).
Got stumped right away...

Sheryl


-----Original Message-----

Sheryl,

A pretty wide open question . . . but I would answer it with whenever
you want to learn it!

I got my feet wet with VBA by recording a couple of macros and then
looking at the code the "recorder" built compared with the steps I
performed while recording. And then, if you think something can be
done, it probably can be. VBA Help was also, and still is, my best
friend in learning what commands are available as well as a good source
of examples.

Hope this helps!

JerryG :)


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Thanks -- I'm going to go check out some of those
tutorials. Also, I don't know any "power users" of excel,
is there a good text reference you'd recommend?
 
Sheryl,
is there a good text reference you'd recommend?
Click to expand...
The absolute best reference is right here in the ng's
and the Google archives.
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&group=microsoft.public.excel

Many of the people who wrote some of the best books
on Excel also participate in these ng's
For a list of books, try here:
http://www.contextures.com/xlbooks.html

As for recommending one over another, I couldn't say
as I haven't read many of them.
If you want a recommendation, visit that Google link that
I gave you above, search for "Recommend Excel Book",
and check the "Search only in microsoft.public.excel*" box.
You'll come up with about 1,300 threads in which someone
else asked that same question (and got thousands of answers).

I'm guessing that you may be a newcomer to the Excel ng.
If so, here's a good starting point.
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/newposte.htm
From almost any of the excellent sites hosted by the
"power users" you can get links to just about everything
that you ever wanted to know about Excel (and then some).

Best of luck with your learning,
John
 
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