Book Image

VBA Automation for Excel 2019 Cookbook

By : Mike Van Niekerk
Book Image

VBA Automation for Excel 2019 Cookbook

By: Mike Van Niekerk

Overview of this book

Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is a programming language developed by Microsoft to automate tasks in MS Office applications. This book will help you to focus on the essential aspects of your role by automating mundane tasks in Excel and other Office applications. With comprehensive coverage of VBA delivered in the form of practice problems and bite-sized recipes, this book will help you to hit the ground running. Unlike most books that assume prior programming experience, this book starts with the fundamentals and gradually progresses to solving bigger problems. You’ll start by becoming familiar with VBA so that you can start recording macros right away. With this foundation in place, you’ll advance to using the full capabilities of the language as you apply loops, functions, and custom dialog boxes to design your own automation programs. You'll also get to grips with embedded macros and other advanced tools to enhance productivity and explore topics relating to app performance and security. Throughout this VBA book, you’ll cover multiple practice projects in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint while exploring tips and best practices to hone your skills. By the end of this book, you’ll have developed the skills you need to use VBA to create your own programs that control MS Office applications.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)

Using the Object Browser in the VBA Editor

This recipe covers usage of the Object Browser in the VBA Editor. The name says it all; the Object Browser lets you browse through the objects available to you.

In later recipes, we will look into the autocompletion of our code. For instance, when you type the name of an object in the code window and type a dot, a context menu appears with a list of actions you can choose from:

Figure 3.9 – The context menu with available library options

The green icons are methods, including cutting, pasting, and clearing contents. The other icons are properties. You can, in other words, choose methods or properties here, or use the Object Browser, as described hereafter.

Getting ready

Make sure that a blank workbook is active in Excel.

How to do it…

  1. Activate the VBA Editor by pressing Alt + F11.
  2. With the Editor active, press F2 to activate the Object Browser. You can also do this by clicking...