How to get started with Visual Basic for Applications? [closed]

Answer 1

Many useful resources here for VBA, one of the most useful points though is that when you turn on the Macro Recorder in Excel the Macros created are VBA code. Excel is huge, trying to learn all the nuances of VBA will take a fair time, OTOH recording a macro takes seconds and you'll get a quick idea of how the language works.

Answer 2

you better get hold copy of MS Office and start using MS Excel. Ms Excel as well as MS Word allows you manage spreadsheets and documents using VBA.

Open MS Excel and do your desired task while recording a Macro. Macros are great place to start learning VBA. In the background all these Macros are stored in VBA format. You can record as many as Macros on your various day to day tasks. Thus you will be more efficient in getting the task done thru MS Excel as well as you will get to learn more about macros and VBA. You will soon learn to tinker this macros for better results.

Answer 3

Actually I started out programming by recording macrosin Excel and reviewing the code created by the recorder. Figure out a simple task and then record a macro. Recording macros in Excel 2007 can be found under the view tab under the Macros button on the far right. One of my first tasks I figured out was to filter several rows of data with autofilter then print the filtered section. After printing I remove the filter and select cell A1.

Before recording a macro figure out each click of the mouse in order. Everytime you click or type the macro records it. So reduce the chatter code recorded, by rehearsing the macro. You might even write out, by hand, a play script like in broadway play would have . Don't worry about how long it takes to record. The recorder has no concept of time. To best understand the VBA, record the macro several times. Throw in an extra click and see what it does. Compare the code in each macro. To get to the code view the macro with the same button mentioned above. select the macro and edit it. When you feel adventerous modify the code in the editor. ALWAYS record and play around on a copy a document not the real thing. This way you can delete the file if it gets to messed up. FYI - the stop button for the macro is often in the bottom left corner of the Excel window.

Happy learning, --J Man

Answer 4

Note that there are many styles of VBA, as code from Excel/VBA is going to look different from code in Access/VBA. The reason is the usage is different (cells vs databases). Look at vb-helper for books, links and code.

Answer 5

VBA (Visual Basic for Application) is what you are looking at, incase you are interested in macros...

In my opinion it is far more easier to understand if you have good experience in Ms-Office, though for mastering it, you might need some programming skills.

The easy way to learn is start with a problem. Take a problem in hand and try to record the macro for automating your task... Then you can take a look at what got recorded in the Visual Basic Editor of the Ms-Office Suite...

Try to read and understand each line of code that got generated as a response to your actions... At first everything will be greek and latin... But if you continue to do it, you will easily understand it in no time...

Then you can search for materials and all those search results will be of great meaning to you.

Have a nice time..

Answer 6

If you get reasonably proficient with VBA, you won't have to call IT for these matters. That may be against your company's policy, but I'll leave that ethical dilemma to you. If I wanted to learn VBA, I would study these three books in order

VBA for Excel for Dummies (Walkenbach)
Power Programming for Excel VBA (Walkenbach)
Professional Excel Development (Bullen, Bovey, et al)

Concurrent with that study, you need to start solving real-world problems. Go to social.msdn.microsoft.com and start reading the VBA forums. Answer whatever questions you can. The ones you can't, wait for someone else to answer it then reproduce the problem and solution so you know it. Do the same with stackoverflow questions by following the vba tags. If any question seems too complicated, just skip and go to the next one.

Read Excel VBA blogs http://www.dailydoseofexcel.com/dicks-blogroll/ Start with http://datapigtechnologies.com/blog/ and http://blog.contextures.com/ for sure. They're not just VBA, but they're very well written.

Here's what will happen: In 3-6 months you will have discovered a whole new world. You will have written simple macros for yourself and your coworkers that eliminates some of the drudgery from your day. You'll start looking for wasteful process you can eliminate with simple code. In 6-12 months you will have become reasonably proficient. You won't need IT to fix minor problems for you. You will be the go-to Excel person in your office (learning VBA will make you better at Excel). You will have helped thousands of people here and on the msdn forums all while helping yourself.

After 2 years you'll probably start being recognized by MS and the community as an expert. You'll get sick of answering the same questions over and over on the forums so you'll start a blog and direct people there. You'll have arguments with your husband about whether VBA is a "real" language, but he'll be secretly proud of you for what you've accomplished. After 5 years you'll have co-authored an Excel book, quit your job to be an Excel consultant, and learned C#. YMMV of course.