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)

Chapter 6: VBA Language Elements

Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) has its origins in Visual Basic, a programming language developed by Microsoft. It is important to understand that VBA is not a standalone program, meaning that you cannot compile code and run it as a separate program outside the MS Office environment.

Its main reason for existence is the customization of the MS Office host applications in which it runs: Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Visio, and Publisher. Companies such as Corel also make use of VBA to allow customization of their applications.

Customization involves the recording and creating of macros to automate repetitive tasks. It is also used to generate custom forms, including event-driven buttons and fields.

Like any language, you need to understand the structure of VBA, which is a programming language. It starts with vocabulary. From there, you learn what effects certain words, also known as commands, will have. The more you use the language...