In this chapter, you'll learn the easiest way to get started with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA): recording simple macros using a Macro Recorder that is built into the Office applications. Then you'll see how to run your macros to perform useful tasks.
I'll define the term macro in a moment. For now, just note that by recording macros, you can automate straightforward but tediously repetitive tasks and speed up your regular work. You can also use the Macro Recorder to create VBA code that performs the actions you need and then edit the code to customize it—adding flexibility and power. In fact, VBA is a real powerhouse if you know how to use it. This book shows you how to tap into that power.
In this chapter you will learn to do the following:
Visual Basic for Applications is a programming language created by Microsoft that can be built into applications. You use VBA to automate operations in applications that support it. All the main Office applications—Word, Excel, Outlook, Access, and PowerPoint—include VBA, so you can automate operations through most Office applications.
And please don't be put off by the notion that you'll be programming: As you'll see shortly, working with VBA is nearly always quite easy. In fact, quite often you need not actually write any VBA yourself; you can merely record it—letting the Office application write all the VBA “code.” The phrase automate operations in applications is perhaps a bit abstract. VBA allows you to streamline many tasks, avoid burdensome repetition, and improve your efficiency. Here are some examples:
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Zoom.Percentage = 150
And don't worry, you need not even know these programming terms like ActiveWindow or View.Zoom. When you turn on the Macro Recorder, then perform these actions (clicking View, then clicking Zoom, then setting the percentage), all your actions are translated into the necessary VBA code. You write no code at all.
VBA is based on Visual Basic, a programming language derived from BASIC. BASIC stands for Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. BASIC is designed to be user-friendly because it employs recognizable English words (or variations on them) rather than the abstruse and incomprehensible programming terms found in languages like COBOL. In addition to its English-like diction, BASIC's designers endeavored to keep its punctuation and syntax as simple and familiar as possible.
Visual Basic is visual in that it offers efficient shortcuts such as drag-and-drop programming techniques and many graphical elements.
Visual Basic for Applications is a version of Visual Basic tailored to Microsoft Office applications. The set of objects (features and behaviors) available in each application differs because no two applications share the same features and commands.
For example, some VBA objects available in Word are not available in Excel (and vice versa) because some of Word's features, like the Table of Contents generator, are not appropriate in Excel.
However, the large set of primary commands, fundamental structure, and core programming techniques of VBA in Word and VBA in Excel are the same. So you'll find that it's often quite easy to translate your knowledge of VBA in Word to VBA in Excel (or indeed in any VBA-enabled application).
For example, you'd use the Save method (a method is essentially an action that can be carried out) to save a file in Excel VBA, Word VBA, or PowerPoint VBA. What differs is the object involved. In Excel VBA, the command would be ActiveWorkbook.Save, whereas in Word VBA it would be ActiveDocument.Save and in PowerPoint it would be ActivePresentation.Save.
VBA always works with a host application (such as Access or Word). With the exception of some stand-alone programs that are usually best created with Visual Studio Tools for Office, a host application always needs to be open for VBA to run. This means that you can't build standalone applications with VBA the way you can with Visual Basic .NET or Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO). If you wish, you can hide the host application from the user so that all they see is the interface (typically user forms) that you give to your VBA procedures. By doing this, you can create the illusion of a stand-alone application. Whether you need to employ this technique will depend on the type of programming you do.
WHAT ARE VISUAL BASIC .NET AND VISUAL BASIC EXPRESS?
Visual Basic .NET (VB .NET) is just one version of Microsoft's long history of BASIC language implementations. BASIC contains a vast set of libraries of prewritten code that allow you to do pretty much anything that Windows is capable of. Although VB .NET is generally employed to write stand-alone applications, you can tap into its libraries from within a VBA macro. Just remember, each Office application has its own object library, but the .NET libraries themselves contain many additional capabilities (often to manipulate the Windows operating system). So, if you need a capability that you can't find within VBA or an Office application's object library, the resources of the entire .NET library are also available to you. Visual Basic Express is a free version of VB .NET. After you've worked with VBA in this book, you might want to explore VB .NET at
www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/products/visual-studio-express-products
You'll find versions for both traditional desktop Windows as well as Windows 8.
A macro is a sequence of commands you or a user can repeat at will. That's exactly the definition of a computer program. Macros, however, are generally short programs—dedicated to a single task. Think of it like this: A normal computer program, such as Photoshop or Internet Explorer (IE), has many capabilities. IE can prevent pop-up ads, block websites, display full-screen when you press F11, and so on. A macro is smaller, dedicated to accomplishing just one of these tasks, such as displaying full-screen.
In some applications, you can set a macro to run itself automatically. For instance, you might create a macro in Word to automate basic formatting tasks on a type of document you regularly receive incorrectly formatted. As you'll see in Chapter 6, “Working with Variables, Constants, and Enumerations,” in a discussion of the AutoExec feature, you can specify that a macro run automatically upon opening a document of that type.
A macro is a type of subroutine (sometimes also called a subprocedure). Generally, people tend to use the shorter, more informal terms sub, procedure, and routine. In the Visual Basic Editor, each of your macros starts with the word Sub. Note that a macro is a single procedure, whereas a computer program like IE is a collection of many procedures.
A macro used to be defined as recorded code rather than written code, but most people today use the word in its wider sense, so it can include written code as well. For example, if you record a macro and then edit it to make it more efficient, or to add commands to make it take further actions, most people still consider it a macro.
In an Office application that supports the VBA Macro Recorder (such as Word or Excel), you can create macros in two ways:
There's also a useful hybrid approach that combines recording with editing. First record the sequence of actions, and then later, in the Visual Basic Editor, you can view and edit your macro. You could delete any unneeded commands. Or type in new commands. Or use the editor's Toolbox feature to drag and drop user-interface elements (such as message boxes and dialog boxes) into your macro so users can make decisions and choose options for how to run it. Macros are marvelously flexible, and the VBA Editor is famously powerful yet easy to use.
Once you've created a macro, you specify how you want the user to trigger it. In most applications, you can assign a macro to the Ribbon, to the Quick Access Toolbar, or to a shortcut key combination. This makes it very easy to run the macro by merely clicking an icon or pressing a shortcut key (such as Alt+R). You can also optionally assign your macro to a Quick Access Toolbar button or keyboard shortcut when you first record the macro, via a dialog box that automatically appears when you begin a recording. You'll see how all this works shortly. It's simple. (To assign a macro to the Ribbon, first record it, then right-click the Ribbon and choose Customize The Ribbon. Locate and click the Choose Commands From drop-down box, then click the Macros entry to display all your macros.)
The easiest way to create VBA code is to record a macro using the Macro Recorder. Only Word and Excel include a Macro Recorder.
You switch on the Macro Recorder, optionally assign a trigger that will later run the macro (a toolbar button or a shortcut key combination), perform the actions you want in the macro, and then switch off the Macro Recorder. As you perform the actions, the Macro Recorder translates them into commands—code—in the VBA programming language.
Once you finish recording the macro, you can view the code in the Visual Basic Editor and change it if you wish. If the code works perfectly as you recorded it, you never have to look at it—you can just run the macro at any time by clicking the toolbar button or key combination you assigned to the macro.
Before going any further, ensure that the Developer (programmer) tab is visible in your Ribbon. This tab is your gateway to macros, VBA, and the VBA Editor. By default, the Office applications do not display this tab. (Access doesn't even have this tab. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook do.) To add this tab to your Ribbon, click the File tab, and then click Options. Click Customize Ribbon. In the list box on the right, click Developer to select it. Click the OK button to close the Options dialog box.
In the following sections, you'll look at the stages involved in recording a macro. The process is easy, but you need to be familiar with some background if you haven't recorded macros before. After the general explanations, you'll record example macros in Word and Excel. (Later in the book you'll examine and modify those macros, after you learn how to use the Visual Basic Editor. So don't delete them.)
Before you even start the Macro Recorder, it's sometimes a good idea to do a little planning. Think about what you will do in the macro. In most cases, you can just record a macro and not worry about the context. You can just record it with a document open and some text visible. But in some situations you need to ensure that a special context is set up before you start the recording. For example, you might want to create a macro in Word that does some kind of editing, such as italicizing and underlining a word. To do this, you'll want to first have the blinking “insertion” cursor on a word that's not italicized or underlined. You don't want to record the actions of moving the insertion cursor to a particular word. That would make your macro specific to this document and this word in that document. You usually want a macro to work well with more than just one particular document.
Your macro is intended to just italicize and underline whatever word is currently under the blinking cursor in any document. Nevertheless, most simple macros can be recorded without any special planning. Just record whatever you want the macro to do.
PAUSING A MACRO
Word (but not Excel) lets you pause the Macro Recorder if you need to stop while recording to do something that you do not want to record. This capability allows you to deal with problems you hadn't anticipated when planning the macro—for example, having to open a document that should have been open before you started recording the macro.
Some macros should perform any necessary setup themselves. The setup will be part of the macro. In these cases, you should make sure the application is in the state that the macro expects before you start recording the macro. For example, if, to do its job, a macro needs a blank active workbook in Excel, the macro itself should create that blank workbook rather than using whichever workbook happens to be active at the time. This saves a step when the macro runs. So to do this, start recording before launching a blank active workbook.
A WARNING ABOUT SECURITY
Macros are computer programs, albeit usually small. You can even tap into all the features in the Windows operating system itself from within a macro. The result is that viruses and other harmful code can be contained within macros (and such code can execute automatically merely by the user opening an infected document via the AutoExec feature discussed in Chapter 6 and via other techniques, such as employing the application's Startup folder). For example, a virus embedded in a macro could delete files on the hard drive if the user opened an infected Word document. This is obviously dangerous.
Office 2013 applications, not to mention the Windows operating systems, contain multiple layers of security to protect against such viruses and harmful code. Specific to macros is a macro “trust” technology that's built into Office applications. To see or modify these trust settings, open the Trust Center dialog box by clicking the Developer tab on the Ribbon, and then click the Macro Security icon (in the Code section of the Ribbon) in Word, Excel, Outlook, or PowerPoint. (Access, as is often the case, does things a bit differently than the other Office applications. Access has no Developer tab. To manage macro security in Access you click the File tab, click the Options link on the left side, click Trust Center, click the Trust Center Settings button, then click Macro Settings.)
The main point here is that you might have to make some adjustments if you can't run macros or if you get mysterious error messages such as “The Macro Could Not Be Created” or “Access is denied.” If this happens, your first step should be to look at the Trust Center and choose Disable All Macros With Notification. This setting asks the user for permission to run macros. Or, while you're working with macros in this book, you might want to just select Enable All Macros in the Trust Center. Then deselect this option before closing a document that you worked on in this book. The idea is that you can trust your own macros but you don't want to trust all macros from all documents you might get from outside sources.
If you are working on a document that you created and it contains macros that you wrote, you can trust that document and agree to activate the macros. However, if you open a document from someone else, you have to be careful.
Additional security issues can be solved by managing the various strata of security that now, out of necessity, are embedded within operating systems and applications. One way to deal with security issues is to explore security topics in Windows 7 or 8 applications' Help features. You can also sometimes get good answers by posting questions in online user groups or searching expert websites such as Wikipedia. Also, you can find a good overview of Office 2013 security here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee857085(v=office.15).aspx
Chapter 19, “Securing Your Code with VBA's Security Features,” covers Office 2013 security issues in depth.
Start the Macro Recorder by clicking the Developer tab on the Ribbon and then clicking the Record Macro button. You can also click the Macro Record button on the status bar at the bottom of the application. (With this approach, you don't have to open the Developer tab. Just click the button on the status bar.)
As soon as you start the Macro Recorder, the Record Macro dialog box opens. You see that this new macro has been given a default macro name (Macro1, Macro2, and so on). You can accept that default name or change it. There's also an optional description to fill in if you wish.
To stop the Macro Recorder, you can click the Stop Recording button in the Developer tab. You can alternatively stop the recording by clicking the square button that appears during recording on the status bar, down on the bottom left of the application's window. Once the Recorder is stopped, the square button is replaced with an icon that you can click to start recording a new macro. In Word for the Mac, click the REC indicator rather than double-clicking it.
The appearance of the Record Macro dialog box varies somewhat from one application to another because the dialog box must offer suitable options to accommodate the varying capabilities particular to each application. In each case, you get to name the macro and add a description of it. In most cases, you can also specify where to save the macro—for example, Word offers two options. For global use (making the macro available to all Word documents), store it in the file named normal.dotm. Or, if it is merely to be used in the currently active document, choose to store it in a file with the document's name and the .dotm filename extension. An ordinary Word template has a .dotx filename extension, but macros are stored in a file with the filename extension .dotm.
Other applications differ somewhat in how the dialog works when you begin recording a macro. For example, Excel allows you three options: to store macros in the current workbook, or in a new workbook, or for use with all Excel workbooks, in the Personal Macro Workbook. That's the equivalent of Word's Normal.dotm file, and Excel's Personal Macro workbook is saved in a file named Personal.xlsb.
WHERE TO STORE MACROS IN POWERPOINT
You can't record macros in the 2013 version of PowerPoint, but you can create them by writing programming code using the Visual Basic Editor. Then you can store macros in the currently active presentation or in any other open presentation or template. PowerPoint also provides a global macro storage container (similar to Word's Normal.dotm file). In PowerPoint, choose the All Open Presentations option in the Macro list box, which is found by clicking the Macros icon in the Code section of the Ribbon's Developer tab.
The Record Macro dialog box also lets you specify how you want the macro triggered. Word displays buttons you can click to either open a dialog for entering a shortcut key combination or open the Word Options dialog where you can create a button for this macro that will appear on the Quick Access Toolbar. Excel limits you to Ctrl+ shortcut key combinations as a way of launching macros, so there is no button to display a full keyboard shortcut dialog like the one in Word. Excel has only a small text box where you can enter the key that will be paired with Ctrl as the shortcut.
Most of the Microsoft applications that host VBA have the Developer tab from which you control macro recording, launch the Visual Basic Editor, and otherwise manage macros. Access, however, groups several of its macro-related tools in a Database Tools tab (which is visible by default) and also has a Macro option on its Create tab.
Figure 1.1 shows the Record Macro dialog box for Word with a custom name and description entered. Figure 1.2 shows Word's version of the Developer tab on the Ribbon.
Here's what the primary Visual Basic features on the Ribbon's Developer tab (or Access's Database Tools tab) do:
Run Macro button Only Access has this Ribbon button. It displays a Run Macro dialog box, in which you can choose the macro to run. Many aspects of VBA in Access are unique only to Access, and Chapter 28, “Understanding the Access Object Model and Key Objects,” covers this topic in depth.
Record Macro button Displays the Record Macro dialog box in Word or Excel.
Macro Security button Displays the Trust Center macro settings dialog. You'll examine this in detail in Chapter 19. This button allows you to specify whether and how you want macros enabled.
Visual Basic button Starts or switches to the Visual Basic Editor. You'll begin working in the Visual Basic Editor in Chapter 2, “Getting Started with the Visual Basic Editor” (and you'll spend most of the rest of the book employing it).
Macros button Opens the classic Macros dialog from which you can run, step into (start the Visual Basic Editor in Break mode, more about this in Chapter 3, “Editing Recorded Macros”), edit, create, delete, or open the macro project organizer dialog. (Not all of these options are available in all applications. For example, PowerPoint has no organizer.) Word and Excel have a similar Macros button in the Ribbon's View tab. This button has the ability to open the Macros dialog but can also start recording a macro. Note that Break mode is also referred to as Step mode.
Add-Ins This is where you can access templates, styles, and specialized code libraries.
Controls A set of control buttons that, when clicked, insert user-interface components—such as a drop-down list box—into an open document. Similar components can also be added to macros that you create in the VBA Editor. Chapters 14 and 15 explore this user-interface topic.
Design Mode button Toggles between Design mode and Regular mode. When Design mode you can add or edit embedded controls in documents. In Regular mode you can interact normally with controls (controls can accept information from the user via typing or mouse clicks).
Properties button This button is enabled only if you're in Design mode. It allows you to edit the properties of the document (such as removing personal information).
THE EMERGENCE OF XML
XML has become an industry standard for storing and transmitting data. With Office 2007, the Office applications' documents began to employ XML extensively. This switch to XML is the primary reason that documents created in versions of Office 2007, 2010, and 2013 are not compatible with earlier versions of Office, such as Office 2003 documents. Thus, you must convert old Office documents to the newer Office formats. And people still using older versions of Office must install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats. Note that Word 2010 and 2013 document files are saved with a .docx filename extension, the x reflecting the underlying XML format on which Office 2007, 2010, and 2013 rest.
Next, enter a name for the new macro in the Macro Name text box in the Record Macro dialog box. The name must comply with the following conventions:
NAME AND DESCRIBE YOUR MACROS
Some people insist that to properly manage your set of macros, you must follow some clerical procedures that involve giving your macros descriptive names and also typing in a narrative description of each macro's purpose. They claim that if you create many macros, you should organize them carefully. Recording macros is so easy; you can create code so quickly that you can end up with a pile of macros—as Southerners say—making it easy to get confused about which macro does what.
You may be tempted not to assign a macro description when you're in a hurry or when you're playing with different ways to approach a problem and you're not sure which (if any) of your test macros you'll keep. And for simple, obvious code, perhaps using the Macro12, Macro13 default names and not typing in a description isn't a problem. If you find it easy to read VBA code, you can usually just look at a macro and read what it does.
Even so, for more complex macros, and for people who find code hard to read—go ahead and enter a few notes for each macro that you record. Otherwise, you can end up with that pile of recorded macros that have the cryptic default names and no descriptions. To figure out what each macro does and which ones you can safely delete, you'll have to plow through the code—and a recorded macro's code can be surprisingly long, even if the macro does nothing more than adjust a few options in a couple of dialog boxes.
You might also want to employ a macro-naming convention to indicate which are test macros that you can delete without remorse. Start the name with a word like Temp, then add numeric values sequentially to keep track of the versions—for example, Scratch (Scratch01, Scratch02, and so on) and Temp (Temp01, Temp02, and so on).
Each new macro you record is by default placed at the bottom of the set of macros in the VBA Editor. You can, however, always open the Visual Basic Editor and rename or add a description anytime you want because macros are fully editable.
Personally, I like to put a little descriptive note inside more complicated macros' code, right at the top, under the Sub line. It looks like this:
Sub AltH() ' Applies Heading 1 style Selection.Style = ActiveDocument.Styles("Title1") End Sub
Any text following a single-quote symbol (‘) on a line of code is ignored by VBA. The single quote indicates that what follows is a comment to assist the programmer in understanding the code rather than actual code that should be executed. (VBA would not know what to make of the words Applies Heading 1 style. They are not part of VBA's dictionary.)
Note that if you type a description in the Description field of the Record Macro dialog when you first start recording, that comment is automatically inserted into your code—complete with the single-quote symbol.
Also, my preferred way to name any macros that are triggered by keyboard shortcuts is to use the name of the keyboard shortcut itself. Thus, Sub AltH tells me that this macro is triggered by the Alt+H keyboard shortcut.
But whatever system you adopt, it's generally better to err on the side of greater description or commenting within the code rather than too little. It only takes a moment to provide an expressive, meaningful name and a clear description of the purpose of the macro.
Word and Excel, the two Office applications that permit macro recording, raise objections to invalid macro names when you click the OK button to start recording the macro. If you enter an invalid macro name in the Record Macro dialog box, these applications let you know—in their own way. Word displays a brief, rather cursory message, while Excel gives more helpful info. Figure 1.3 shows how these applications respond to an invalid macro name once it's entered.
Type a description for the macro in the Description text box. Recall that this description is to help you (and anyone you share the macro with) identify the macro and understand when to use it. If the macro runs successfully only under particular conditions, you can note them briefly in the Description text box. For example, if the user must make a selection in the document before running the macro in Word, mention that.
You now need to choose where to store the macro. Your choices with Word and Excel are as follows:
Word Recall that in Word, if you want to restrict availability of the macro to just the current template (.dotm file) or document (.docm file), choose that template or document from the Store Macro In drop-down list in the Record Macro dialog box shown in Figure 1.1. If you want the macro to be available no matter which template you're working in, make sure the default setting—All Documents (Normal.dotm)—appears in the Store Macro In combo box. (If you're not clear on what Word's templates are and what they do, see the sidebar “Understanding Word's Normal.dotm, Templates, and Documents” later in this chapter).
Excel In Excel, you can choose to store the macro in This Workbook (the active workbook), a new workbook, or Personal Macro Workbook. The Personal Macro Workbook is a special workbook named Personal.xlsb. Excel creates this Personal Macro Workbook the first time you choose to store a macro in the Personal Macro Workbook. By keeping your macros and other customizations in the Personal Macro Workbook, you can make them available to any of your procedures. Recall that the Personal Macro Workbook is similar to Word's global macros storage file named Normal.dotm. If you choose New Workbook, Excel creates a new workbook for you and creates the macro in it.
Word and Excel automatically store recorded macros in a default location in the specified document, template, workbook, or presentation:
Word Word stores each recorded macro in a module named NewMacros in the selected template or document, so you'll always know where to find a macro after you've recorded it. This can be a bit confusing because there can be multiple NewMacros folders visible in the Project Explorer pane in the Visual Basic Editor. (This happens because there can be more than one project open—such as several documents open simultaneously, each with its own NewMacros folder holding the macros embedded within each document.) Think of NewMacros as merely a holding area for macros—until you move them to another module with a more descriptive name. (Of course, if you create only a handful of macros, you don't need to go to the trouble of creating various special modules to subdivide them into categories. You can just leave everything in a NewMacros module. As always, how clerical you need to be depends on how organized your mind and memory are.)
If a NewMacros module doesn't yet exist, the Macro Recorder creates it. Because it receives each macro recorded into its document or template, a NewMacros module can soon grow large if you record many macros. The NewMacros module in the default global template, Normal.dotm, is especially likely to grow bloated, because it receives each macro you record unless you specify another document or template prior to recording. Some people like to clear out the NewMacros module from time to time, putting recorded macros you want to keep into other modules and disposing of any useless or temp recorded macros. I don't have that many macros, so I find no problem simply leaving them within the NewMacros module.
Excel Excel stores each recorded macro for any given session in a new module named Module n, where n is the lowest unused number in ascending sequence (Module1, Module2, and so on). Any macros you create in the next session go into a new module with the next available number. If you record macros frequently with Excel, you'll most likely need to consolidate the macros you want to keep so that they're not scattered across many modules like this.
UNDERSTANDING WORD'S NORMAL.DOTM, TEMPLATES, AND DOCUMENTS
Word 2007, 2010, and 2013 store data differently than previous versions of Word. For one thing, in Word 2003 you could create custom menus and toolbars that you stored in templates. Later versions of Word do not permit menus, nor do they permit any toolbars other than the Quick Access Toolbar. What's more, customizing that toolbar has a global impact. Custom toolbar buttons are not stored in templates. In other words, any modifications you make to the Quick Access Toolbar will be visible in any Word document, no matter which template(s) is currently active.
Word 2007, 2010, and 2013 feature three kinds of templates:
Word has a four-layer architecture. Starting from the bottom, these layers are the application itself, the global template (Normal.dotm), the active document's template, and finally, the active document itself (the text and formatting). Each of the four layers can affect how Word appears and how it behaves, but all four layers are not necessarily active at any given time.
The bottom layer, which is always active, is the Word application itself. This layer contains all the Word objects and built-in commands, such as Open. Also always active are objects such as Word's Quick Access Toolbar, the Ribbon, and so on. This layer is the most difficult to picture because usually you don't see it directly. Normal.dotm, the global template, forms the second layer and is also always active.
When you start Word, it loads Normal.dotm automatically, and Normal.dotm stays loaded until you exit Word. (There's a special switch you can use—winword /n—to prevent the macros in Normal.dotm from being active if you need to troubleshoot it. Press the Start key [the Windows key] in Windows 8, and type Run to launch Word in this special way.)
Normal.dotm contains styles (such as the default paragraph style), AutoText entries, formatted AutoCorrect entries, and customizations. These customizations show up in the other layers unless specifically excluded.
Default blank documents (such as the document that Word normally creates when you start it and any document you create by clicking Ctrl+N or by clicking the Ribbon's File tab and then choosing New and Blank Document) are based on Normal.dotm. So when you're working in a default blank document, you see the Word interface as it is specified in Normal.dotm.
The currently active template sits on top of the Word application and Normal.dotm. This template can contain styles, macro modules (if it is a macro-enabled .dotm file type), and settings for the template, along with any boilerplate text needed for this particular type of document. This is the third layer, but it is used only if the current document (or active document) is attached to a template other than Normal.dotm.
On top of the current template sits the current document, which contains the text and graphics in the document, its formatting, and its layout. Documents can also contain macro modules and custom keyboard shortcuts, so the document itself can act as a fourth layer. This layer is always present when a document is open, but it has no effect on Word's interface or behavior unless the document contains customizations.
Because these layers might contain conflicting information (such as two different font styles with the same name), there has to be an order of precedence that defines which layer “wins” in any such conflict. Customized settings work from the top layer downward. So customized settings in the active document take precedence over those in the active template. Likewise, any settings in the current template take precedence over any global templates (templates that automatically apply to all Word documents) or add-ins other than Normal.dotm. Customized settings in those global templates or add-ins take precedence over those in Normal.dotm.
As another example, say you have the key combination Ctrl+Shift+K assigned to different actions in Normal.dotm, in a loaded global template, in a document's template, and in the document itself. When you press that key combination, only the procedure assigned in the document runs because that is the topmost layer. If you remove the key-combination assignment from the document, the template then becomes the topmost layer containing a definition of this key combination, so the procedure assigned in the template runs. If you remove the key combination from the template as well, the procedure in the loaded global template runs. Finally, if you remove that template's key combination too, the procedure in Normal.dotm runs.
Continuing our exploration of the Record Macro dialog box shown in Figure 1.1, at this point, after you've named the macro, typed a description, and chosen where to store it, it's time to choose how to trigger the macro. In other words, which way do you want to run the macro: via a shortcut key or the Quick Access Toolbar button? Good typists generally prefer shortcut keys, but buttons provide at least a visual hint of the macro's purpose, and hovering your mouse on the button also displays the name of the macro.
Shortcut keys and buttons are handy for people who record a moderate number of macros and don't organize them in complex ways—moving them from one module to another. If you create a great number of macros and feel the need to move them into other modules, assigning a shortcut key or button prior to recording becomes less useful. This is because moving a macro from one module to another disconnects any way you've assigned for running the macro.
This limitation means that it makes sense to assign a way of running a macro—prior to recording—only if you're planning to use the macro in its recorded form (as opposed to, say, using part of it to create another macro) and from its default location. If you plan to move the macro or rename it, don't assign a way of running it now. Instead, wait until the macro is in its final form and location, and then assign the means of running it. See “Specifying How to Trigger an Existing Macro,” later in this chapter, for details.
Personally, I don't have more than a couple dozen macros that I use all the time, so I avoid the complications described in the previous paragraph and the sidebar on managing your macros. Instead, I just add shortcut keys when I first create the macro, and leave them all in a single version of Normal.dotm. However, if you face more complicated situations—such as managing a big set of macros for a company—you might want to manage your macros with modules.
MANAGE YOUR MACROS WITH MODULES
By moving your recorded macros into different modules, you can group related macros so you can compare the code, adjust them, or distribute them easily.
To assign a way to run the macro, follow the instructions in the next sections.
You don't have to assign a button or keyboard shortcut prior to recording a macro. You can do it later, or at any time. In Word, Access, Excel, and other Office 2013 applications, you use the Options dialog box to assign a button on the Quick Access Toolbar to a macro. PowerPoint and Access do not permit you to assign keyboard shortcuts to macros, but for applications that do permit this—such as Word and Excel—you use the Customize Keyboard dialog box to assign a shortcut key to a macro. Excel limits you to Ctrl+ or Ctrl+Shift key combinations.
Although it's not available in the Record Macro dialog box, you can add a macro to the Ribbon, like this:
Here's how to use the Word Options dialog box to assign a macro to a button on the Quick Access Toolbar:
MACRO BUTTON LABELS NEED NOT MATCH THEIR OFFICIAL NAMES
Notice that a macro's button name (displayed as its tooltip caption when you hover your mouse over it) doesn't have to bear any relation to the macro's actual name as it appears in the Visual Basic Editor or the Macro dialog.
To assign the macro to a key combination, follow these steps:
YOU CAN POSTPONE ASSIGNING A SHORTCUT KEY COMBINATION
Remember that, as with the other ways of running a macro, you can assign a key combination to run a macro either at the time you record the macro or at any point after you finish recording it. If you intend to move the macro from the NewMacros module to another module, remember that you need not assign the key combination until the macro has reached its ultimate destination.
A key combination in Word can be any of the following:
SPECIFY TWO-STEP KEY COMBINATIONS
You can set up shortcut keys that have two steps—for example, Ctrl+Alt+F, 1 and Ctrl+Alt+F, 2—by pressing the second key (in this case, the 1 or the 2) after pressing the key combination. However, these shortcuts tend to be more trouble than they're worth, unless you're assigning literally hundreds of extra shortcut keys.
A clumsy, rarely used way to run a macro is to click the Developer tab in the Ribbon. To see how this works, follow these steps:
By the way, you can also run a macro from within the Visual Basic Editor by pressing F5. This is how you test macros while you're editing them.
When you're recording a macro, Excel allows you to assign only a Ctrl shortcut key, not a button, to run it. If you want to assign a Quick Access Toolbar button to the macro, you need to do so after recording the macro (using the Customize feature as described shortly).
To assign a Ctrl shortcut key to run the macro you're recording, follow these steps:
PowerPoint does not let you record macros, but you can assign a way to run macros written in the Visual Basic Editor, as discussed in the section “Specifying How to Trigger an Existing Macro” later in this chapter.
Outlook doesn't let you record macros, and by default macros are disabled. To enable macros in Outlook, click the Developer tab on the Ribbon, then click the Macro Security icon (it's on the left in the Code section of the Ribbon). The Trust Center dialog box opens. Click the Notification For All Macros option or the Enable All Macros option. To see how to assign a way to run macros, see the section “Specifying How to Trigger an Existing Macro” later in this chapter.
When you close the Record Macro dialog box, the Macro Recorder begins recording the macro. The Macro Recorder displays the Stop Recording icon (a white square) in the status bar at the bottom left of the screen (and a Stop Recording button in the Developer tab on the Ribbon). In addition, a small symbol of a cassette tape appears in the mouse pointer (these tapes were used in the old days, prior to the invention of the CD).
Now you should perform the sequence of actions you want to record. What exactly you can do varies from application to application, but in general, you can use the mouse to select items, make choices in dialog boxes, and select defined items in documents (such as cells in spreadsheets). You'll find a number of things that you can't do with the mouse, such as select items within a document window in Word. To select items in a Word document window, you have to use the keyboard (Shift+arrow keys, for example). You can select cells with the mouse in Excel during recording.
THE MACRO RECORDER RECORDS EVERYTHING—THE COMPLETE CURRENT STATUS
When you make choices in a dialog box and click the OK button, the Macro Recorder records the current settings for all the options on that page of the dialog box. So, for example, when you change the left indentation of a paragraph in the Paragraph dialog box in Word, the Macro Recorder records all the other settings on the Indents And Spacing page as well (Alignment, Before and After spacing, and so forth).
In Word, if you need to perform any actions that you don't want recorded, pause the Macro Recorder by clicking the Pause Recording button on the Ribbon. The button changes to Resume Recording. Click the button again to start recording again.
To stop recording, click either the Stop Recording button on the Ribbon, or the other one on the status bar.
The Macro Recorder has now recorded your macro and assigned it to a key combination or button, if you made that choice.
To run a macro you've recorded, you can use four methods to run it within the application:
You can also run a macro from the Visual Basic Editor, which is useful when you're working in the Editor. Just press F5.
The macro runs, performing the actions in the sequence in which you recorded them. For example, suppose you create a macro in Excel that selects cell A2 in the current worksheet, boldfaces that cell, enters the text Yearly Sales, selects cell B2, and enters the number 100000 in it. The Macro Recorder recognizes and saves those five actions. VBA then performs all five actions, step-by-step, each time you run the macro—albeit quite rapidly.
HOW TO STOP AN EXECUTING MACRO
To stop a running macro, press Ctrl+Break (Break is usually the unshifted Pause key on the keyboard). VBA stops running the code and displays a dialog box telling you that code execution has been interrupted. Click the End button to dismiss this dialog box.
Some applications (such as Word) let you undo most actions executed via VBA after the macro stops running (by pressing Ctrl+Z or clicking the Undo button on the Quick Access Toolbar, undoing one command at a time); other applications do not.
MACRO ERRORS ARE OFTEN CAUSED BY INCORRECT CONTEXTS
If running the macro results in an error, often this means that the macro is trying to do something to a file or an object that isn't available. For example, if you record a macro in Excel that works on the active workbook, the macro causes an error if you run it when no workbook is open (thus there is no such thing as an active workbook). Likewise, if you write a macro in PowerPoint that works with the third shape on the active slide, that macro fails if you run it on a slide that has no third shape. To get the macro to run properly, re-create the conditions it needs, and then try it again.
In this section, you'll record a sample macro in Word that you can work with later in the book. This macro selects the current word, cuts it, moves the insertion point one word to the right, and pastes the word back in. This is a straightforward sequence of actions that you'll later view and edit in the Visual Basic Editor.
Follow these steps to record the macro:
FINDING BUILT-IN KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
You can find a complete list of the built-in keyboard shortcuts (such as Ctrl+left arrow) by searching an application's Help system for “Keyboard Shortcuts.” If available, click the Show All option to expand the complete list, then use Ctrl+F to search for whatever you're interested in.
You can now run this macro by using the toolbar button or keyboard shortcut that you assigned (if you chose to assign one). Alternatively, click the Macros button in the Developer tab and run the macro from the Macros dialog box. Try positioning the insertion point in the word brown and running the macro to restore the words in the sentence to their original order.
At this point, Word has stored the macro in Normal.dot. If you don't save macros until you exit Word (or until an automated backup takes place), Word doesn't, by default, prompt you to save them then. It just does so automatically. But it's best to click the Save button in the File tab to store Normal now. That way, if Word or Windows crashes, you will avoid losing the macro.
YOU CAN FORCE WORD TO PROMPT YOU TO SAVE THE NORMAL TEMPLATE
Word, by default, automatically saves new macros added to the Normal template. But if you prefer to have Word prompt you to save any changes to the Normal template, choose Options on the File tab, then click the Advanced button and scroll down until you see the section of Save options. Select the Prompt Before Saving Normal Template check box, and then click the OK button. This option was selected by default in early versions of Office, but ever since Office 2007 it is turned off by default.
In the following sections, you'll record a sample Excel macro. This macro creates a new workbook, enters a sequence of months into it, and then saves it. You'll work with this macro again in Chapter 3, so don't delete it.
If you don't already have a Personal Macro Workbook in Excel, you'll need to create one before you can create this procedure. (If you do have a Personal Macro Workbook, skip to the next section.) Follow these steps:
You now have caused Excel to generate a Personal Macro Workbook that you can use from now on to hold your global macros.
To create this macro, start Excel and follow these steps:
Close the sample workbook, and use Windows Explorer to navigate to the new .xlsx file you just saved, and delete the file. Then run the macro and watch what happens. (If you don't delete the existing workbook, Excel prompts you to decide whether to overwrite it when in step 14 it tries to save the new workbook using the same name as the existing workbook.)
If you didn't assign a way of running the macro when you recorded it, you can assign a way of running it as described here.
To assign a macro to the Quick Access Toolbar, follow these steps:
The section “Running a Macro via a Shortcut Key Combination,” earlier in this chapter, explained how to do this in Word. PowerPoint and Access do not let you assign a macro to a key combination. Excel uses a slightly different approach than Word, limiting you to Ctrl and Shift combinations, as described earlier in this chapter in the section “Assigning a Way to Run a Macro in Excel.”
To delete a macro you no longer need, follow these steps:
Real World Scenario
ORGANIZING MACROS IN WORD WITH THE ORGANIZER DIALOG BOX
Most VBA-enabled applications require you to use the Visual Basic Editor (which is discussed in the next chapter) to move code modules, user forms, and other code items from one file to another file. (A code module is a virtual container used for storing macros. A user form is a custom dialog box displayed to the user for input.) But Word provides a useful tool called the Organizer dialog box that you can use to copy, move, rename, and delete code modules, user forms, and other code items directly in the Word interface without opening the Visual Basic Editor.
To use the Organizer dialog box, follow these steps:
button underneath the list box on the corresponding side. The Close File button changes to an Open File button. Click this button to display the Open dialog box, navigate to and select the document or template you want, and then click the Open button. The Open dialog will automatically default to displaying the Templates folder.
Record a macro. The easiest way to create a macro is to simply record it. Whatever you type or click—all your behaviors—are translated into VBA automatically and saved as a macro.
Master It Turn on the macro recorder in Word and create a macro that moves the insertion cursor up three lines. Then turn off the macro recorder and view the code in the Visual Basic Editor.
Assign a macro to a button or keyboard shortcut. You can trigger a macro using three convenient methods: clicking an entry on the Ribbon, clicking a button in the Quick Access Toolbar, or using a keyboard shortcut. You are responsible for assigning a macro to any or all of these methods.
Master It Assign an existing macro to a new Quick Access Toolbar button.
Run a macro. Macros are most efficiently triggered via a Ribbon entry, by clicking a button on the Quick Access Toolbar, or by pressing a shortcut key combination such as Alt+N or Ctrl+Alt+F. When you begin recording a macro, the Record Macro dialog has buttons that allow you to assign the new macro to a shortcut key or toolbar button. However, if you are using the Visual Basic Editor, you can run a macro by simply pressing F5.
Master It Execute a macro from within the Visual Basic Editor.
Delete a macro. It's useful to keep your collection of macros current and manageable. If you no longer need a macro, remove it. Macros can be directly deleted from the Visual Basic Editor or by clicking the Delete button in the Macros dialog (opened by pressing Alt+F8).
Master It Temporarily remove a macro, then restore it, using the Visual Basic Editor.
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