Examining the macro

The macro was recorded in a new module named Module1. To view the code in this module, you must activate the VB Editor. You can activate the VB Editor in either of two ways:

• Press Alt+F11.
• Choose Developer ➜ Code ➜ Visual Basic.

In the VB Editor, the Project window displays a list of all open workbooks and add-ins. This list is displayed as a tree diagram, which you can expand or collapse. The code that you recorded previously is stored in Module1 in the current workbook. When you double-click Module1, the code in the module appears in the code window.

The macro should look something like this:

Sub MyName()
'
' MyName Macro
'
' Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+N
'
    ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "Michael Alexander"
End Sub

The macro recorded is a Sub procedure that is named MyName. The statements tell Excel what to do when the macro is executed.

Notice that Excel inserted some comments at the top of the procedure. These comments are some of the information that appeared in the Record Macro dialog box. These comment lines (which begin with an apostrophe) aren’t really necessary, and deleting them has no effect on how the macro runs. If you ignore the comments, you’ll see that this procedure has only one VBA statement:

ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "Michael Alexander"

This single statement causes the name you typed while recording to be inserted into the active cell.

Testing the macro

Before you recorded this macro, you set an option that assigned the macro to the Ctrl+Shift+N shortcut key combination. To test the macro, return to Excel by using either of the following methods:

• Press Alt+F11.
• Click the View Microsoft Excel button on the VB Editor toolbar.

When Excel is active, activate a worksheet. (It can be in the workbook that contains the VBA module or in any other workbook.) Select a cell and press Ctrl+Shift+N. The macro immediately enters your name into the cell.

Editing the macro

After you record a macro, you can make changes to it. For example, assume that you want your name to be bold. You can rerecord the macro, but this modification is simple, so editing the code is more efficient. Press Alt+F11 to activate the VB Editor window. Then activate Module1 and insert the following statement before the End Sub statement:

ActiveCell.Font.Bold = True

The edited macro appears as follows:

Sub MyName()
'
' MyName Macro
'
' Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+N
'
    ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "Michael Alexander"
 
    ActiveCell.Font.Bold = True
 
End Sub

Menu bar

The VBE menu bar works just like every other menu bar you’ve encountered. It contains commands that you use to do things with the various components in the VBE. Many of the menu commands have shortcut keys associated with them.

The VBE also features shortcut menus. You can right-click virtually anything in the VBE and get a shortcut menu of common commands.

Toolbar

The Standard toolbar, which is directly under the menu bar by default, is one of four VBE toolbars available. You can customize the toolbars, move them around, display other toolbars, and so on. If you’re so inclined, use the View ➜ Toolbars command to work with VBE toolbars. Most people just leave them as they are.

Project window

The Project window displays a tree diagram that shows every workbook currently open in Excel (including add-ins and hidden workbooks). Double-click items to expand or contract them. You’ll explore this window in more detail in the “Working with the Project window” section later in this chapter.

If the Project window is not visible, press Ctrl+R or use the View ➜ Project Explorer command. To hide the Project window, click the Close button in its title bar. Alternatively, right-click anywhere in the Project window and select Hide from the shortcut menu.

Code window

A code window contains VBA code. Every object in a project has an associated code window. To view an object’s code window, double-click the object in the Project window. For example, to view the code window for the Sheet1 object, double-click Sheet1 in the Project window. Unless you’ve added some VBA code, the code window will be empty.

You find out more about code windows later in this chapter’s “Working with a code window” section.

Immediate window

The Immediate window may or may not be visible. If it isn’t visible, press Ctrl+G or use the View ➜ Immediate Window command. To close the Immediate window, click the Close button in its title bar (or right-click anywhere in the Immediate window and select Hide from the shortcut menu).

The Immediate window is most useful for executing VBA statements directly and for debugging your code. If you’re just starting out with VBA, this window won’t be all that useful, so feel free to hide it and free up some screen space for other things.

Adding a new VBA module

When you record a macro, Excel automatically inserts a VBA module to hold the recorded code. The workbook that holds the module for the recorded macro depends on where you chose to store the recorded macro, just before you started recording.

In general, a VBA module can hold three types of code:

• Declarations: One or more information statements that you provide to VBA. For example, you can declare the data type for variables you plan to use or set some other module-wide options.
• Sub procedures: A set of programming instructions that performs some action. All recorded macros are Sub procedures.
• Function procedures: A set of programming instructions that returns a single value (similar in concept to a worksheet function, such as Sum).

A single VBA module can store any number of Sub procedures, Function procedures, and declarations. The way you organize a VBA module is completely up to you. Some people prefer to keep all their VBA code for an application in a single VBA module; others like to split up the code into several modules. It’s a personal choice, just like arranging furniture.

Follow these steps to manually add a new VBA module to a project:

1. Select the project’s name in the Project window.
2. Choose Insert ➜ Module.

Or you can do the following:

1. Right-click the project’s name.
2. Choose Insert ➜ Module from the shortcut menu.

The new module is added to a Modules folder in the Project window (see Figure 23.8). Any modules you create in a given workbook are placed in this Modules folder.

Removing a VBA module

You may want to remove a code module that is no longer needed. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Select the module’s name in the Project window.
2. Choose File ➜ Remove xxx, where xxx is the module name.

Or do the following:

1. Right-click the module’s name.
2. Choose Remove xxx from the shortcut menu.

Minimizing and maximizing windows

Code windows are much like workbook windows in Excel. You can minimize them, maximize them, resize them, hide them, rearrange them, and so on. It’s often much easier to maximize the code window that you’re working on. Doing so lets you see more code and keeps you from getting distracted.

To maximize a code window, click the Maximize button in its title bar (right next to the X). Or just double-click its title bar to maximize it. To restore a code window to its original size, click the Restore button. When a window is maximized, its title bar isn’t really visible, so you’ll find the Restore button to the right of the Help box.

Sometimes you may want to have two or more code windows visible. For example, you may want to compare the code in two modules or copy code from one module to another. You can arrange the windows manually or use the Window ➜ Tile Horizontally or Window ➜ Tile Vertically commands to arrange them automatically.

You can quickly switch among code windows by pressing Ctrl+Tab. If you repeat that key combination, you keep cycling through all the open code windows. Pressing Ctrl+Shift+Tab cycles through the windows in reverse order.

Minimizing a code window gets it out of the way. You can also click the window’s Close button in a code window’s title bar to close the window completely. (Closing a window just hides it; you won’t lose anything.) To open it again, just double-click the appropriate object in the Project window. Working with these code windows sounds more difficult than it really is.

Getting VBA code into a module

Before you can do anything meaningful, you must have some VBA code in the VBA module. You can get VBA code into a VBA module in three ways:

• Use the Excel macro recorder to record your actions and convert them to VBA code.
• Enter the code directly.
• Copy code from another module (or any online resource) and paste it into the code window.

You have discovered the excellent method for creating code by using the Excel Macro recorder. However, not all tasks can be translated to VBA by recording a macro. You often have to enter your code directly into the module. Entering code directly basically means either typing the code yourself or copying and pasting code you have found somewhere else.

Entering and editing text in a VBA module works as you might expect. You can select, copy, cut, paste, and do other things to the text.

A single line of VBA code can be as long as you like. However, you may want to use the line continuation character to break up lengthy lines of code. To continue a single line of code (also known as a statement) from one line to the next, end the first line with a space followed by an underscore (_). Then continue the statement on the next line. Here’s an example of a single statement split into three lines:

Selection.Sort Key1:=Range("A1"), _
 
     Order1:=xlAscending, Header:=xlGuess, _
 
     Orientation:=xlTopToBottom

This statement would perform the same way if it were entered in a single line (with no line-continuation characters). Notice that the second and third lines of this statement are indented. Indenting is optional, but it helps clarify the fact that these lines are not separate statements.

The VBE has multiple levels of undo and redo. If you deleted a statement that you shouldn’t have, use the Undo button on the toolbar (or press Ctrl+Z) until the statement appears again. After undoing, you can use the Redo button to perform the changes you’ve undone.

Ready to enter some real, live code? Try the following steps:

1. Create a new workbook in Excel.
2. Press Alt+F11 to activate the VBE.
3. Click the new workbook’s name in the Project window.
4. Choose Insert ➜ Module to insert a VBA module into the project.

5. Type the following code into the module:

   Sub GuessName()
    
       Dim Msg as String
    
       Dim Ans As Long
    
       Msg = "Is your name " & Application.UserName & "?"
    
       Ans = MsgBox(Msg, vbYesNo)
    
       If Ans = vbNo Then MsgBox "Oh, never mind."
    
       If Ans = vbYes Then MsgBox "I must be clairvoyant!"
    
   End Sub

6. Make sure the cursor is located anywhere within the text you typed and press F5 to execute the procedure. F5 is a shortcut for the Run ➜ Run Sub/UserForm command.

When you enter the code listed in step 5, you might notice that the VBE makes some adjustments to the text you enter. For example, after you type the Sub statement, the VBE automatically inserts the End Sub statement. And if you omit the space before or after an equal sign, the VBE inserts the space for you. Also, the VBE changes the color and capitalization of some text. This is all perfectly normal. It’s just the VBE’s way of keeping things neat and readable.

If you followed the previous steps, you just created a VBA Sub procedure, also known as a macro. When you press F5 with the cursor in the procedure, Excel executes the code and follows the instructions. In other words, Excel evaluates each statement and does what you told it to do. You can execute this macro any number of times, although it tends to lose its appeal after a few dozen executions.

This simple macro uses the following concepts:

• Defining a Sub procedure (the first line)
• Declaring variables (the Dim statements)
• Assigning values to variables (Msg and Ans)
• Concatenating (joining) strings (using the & operator)
• Using a built-in VBA function (MsgBox)
• Using built-in VBA constants (vbYesNo, vbNo, and vbYes)
• Using an If-Then construct (twice)
• Ending a Sub procedure (the last line)

As mentioned previously, you can copy and paste code into a VBA module. For example, a Sub or Function procedure that you write for one project might also be useful in another project. Instead of wasting time reentering the code, you can activate the module and use the normal copy-and-paste procedures (Ctrl+C to copy and Ctrl+V to paste). After pasting it into a VBA module, you can modify the code as necessary.

Saving your project

As with any application, you should save your work frequently while working in the VB Editor. To do so, use File ➜ Save xxxx (where xxxx is the name of the active workbook), press Ctrl+S, or click the Save button on the standard toolbar.

The VB Editor does not have a Save As command. If you save a workbook for the first time from the Editor, you are presented with Excel’s standard Save As dialog box. If you want to save your project with a different name, you need to activate Excel and use Excel’s Save As command.

The Editor tab

Figure 23.9 shows the options accessed by clicking the Editor tab of the Options dialog box. Use the options in the Editor tab to control the way certain things work in the VBE.

Option Explicit

The Editor Format tab

Figure 23.10 shows the Editor Format tab of the Options dialog box. With this tab, you can customize the way the VBE looks.

The General tab

Figure 23.11 shows the options available under the General tab in the Options dialog box. In almost every case, the default settings are just fine.

The most important setting on the General tab is Error Trapping. If you are just starting your Excel macro writing career, it’s best to leave the Error Trapping set to Break on Unhandled Errors. This ensures Excel can identify errors as you type your code.

The Docking tab

Figure 23.12 shows the Docking tab. These options determine how the various windows in the VBE behave. When a window is docked, it is fixed in place along one of the edges of the VBE program window. This makes it much easier to identify and locate a particular window. If you turn off all docking, you have a big, confusing mess of windows. Generally, the default settings work fine.