0.1 Introduction

This book teaches you, from the ground up, what you need to know to become a competent Excel VBA programmer. Unlike many texts on programming, this book does not assume that you have prior programming knowledge.

In the early chapters of this book, you will learn the most fundamental Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) skills. Chapter by chapter you will build on those skills. By the end of this book, you will have learned not only how to significantly automate your own work in Excel but also how to design and program complete applications for others to use.

In Section One, you learn:

  • Fundamental skills related to recording and modifying VBA code created with the Excel Macro Recorder.

  • How to extend Excel's worksheet functions by writing your own functions for use in worksheet cells.

  • How to write VBA code that makes decisions and repeats actions as needed.

  • Use the VBA Debugger to solve problems in your VBA code.

  • Automate the creation and formatting of Charts.

  • Automate the creation of Pivot Tables and Pivot Charts.

  • How to create file dialogs to easily select files such as workbooks or templates, for saving or opening.

In Section Two, you learn more advanced topics for developing applications based in Excel:

  • How to apply defensive programming to your projects.

  • How to write VBA code that handles errors gracefully, so that your application does not crash.

  • How to design large-scale applications using modular programming techniques.

  • Develop a user-interface for your Excel VBA application with custom forms, dialogs, and custom ribbons.

  • Get data from external sources, such as a database.

  • Use your Excel VBA code to control Internet Explorer.

In Section Three, you learn the most advanced Excel programming techniques:

  • Write VBA code that responds to events in your workbook and worksheets.

  • Create your own Add-In extensions to Excel.

  • Extend Excel’s program objects with custom data types and object classes.

  • Control other MS Office applications from your Excel VBA code, such as MS Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

When you successfully complete all three sections of this book, you will be able to tackle the most difficult and complex Excel VBA programming tasks for data retrieval, presentation, and analysis.

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