Tài liệu VBA for the 2007 Microsoft Office System ppt

With this method, you start the macro recording feature and then run through the operations you want to auto-mate—which can include selecting text, running commands from the Ribbon the O

C o n t e n t s a t a G l a n c e

I Getting Started with VBA

1 Creating and Running Recorded Macros 3

2 Writing Your Own Macros 15

3 Understanding Program Variables 33

4 Building VBA Expressions 53

5 Working with Objects 71

6 Controlling Your VBA Code 91

II Putting VBA to Work 7 Programming Word 115

8 Programming Excel 139

9 Programming PowerPoint 165

10 Programming Access Databases 189

11 Programming Outlook Email 213

III Getting the Most Out of VBA 12 Creating Custom VBA Dialog Boxes 237

13 Customizing the Office 2007 Ribbon 263

14 VBA Tips and Techniques 299

15 Trapping Program Errors 323

16 Debugging VBA Procedures 337

IV Appendixes A VBA Statements 355

B VBA Functions 361

Index 371

Paul McFedries

800 E 96th Street

Indianapolis, Indiana 46240

VBA

for the

Office System

?

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or omissions Nor is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the

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International Standard Book Number: 0-7897-3667-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McFedries, Paul.

VBA for the 2007 Microsoft Office system / Paul McFedries.

p cm.

ISBN 0-7897-3667-5

1 Microsoft Office 2 Microsoft Visual Basic for applications 3 Business—

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Introduction xvii

What Is a Macro? xviii

What Does VBA Have to Do with Macros? xix

What You Should Know Before Reading This Book xix

What’s in the Book xx

This Book’s Special Features xx

I GETTING STARTED WITH VBA 1 Creating and Running Recorded Macros 3

Recording a VBA Macro 5

Recording a Word Macro 5

Recording an Excel Macro 7

Running a Recorded Macro 8

Using the Macro Name List 8

Assigning Shortcut Keys to Recorded Word Macros 9

Assigning Shortcut Keys to Recorded Excel Macros 10

Creating a Quick Access Toolbar Button for a Recorded Macro 11

From Here 13

2 Writing Your Own Macros 15

Activating the Ribbon’s Developer Tab 16

Displaying the Visual Basic Editor 16

Touring the Visual Basic Editor 17

Creating a New Module 17

Opening an Existing Module 18

Understanding VBA Procedures 19

Creating a Command Macro 19

Writing a Command Macro 20

Running a Command Macro 21

Entering VBA Statements 22

Creating a User-Defined Function 23

Understanding User-Defined Functions 24

Writing a User-Defined Function 25

Using a Function 26

Taking Advantage of IntelliSense 27

List Properties/Methods 27

Parameter Info 29

Complete Word 30

Shutting Down the Visual Basic Editor 30

From Here 30

3 Understanding Program Variables 33

Declaring Variables 33

Avoiding Variable Errors 35

Variable Data Types 36

Changing the Default Data Type 39

Creating User-Defined Data Types 39

Using Array Variables 40

Dynamic Arrays 41

Multidimensional Arrays 44

Working with Constants 44

Using Built-In Constants 44

Creating User-Defined Constants 45

Storing User Input in a Variable 45

Getting Input Using MsgBox 45

Getting Input Using InputBox 50

From Here 51

4 Building VBA Expressions 53

Understanding Expressions 53

Working with VBA Operators 54

Arithmetic Operators 55

The Concatenation Operator 56

Comparison Operators 56

Logical Operators 57

Understanding Operator Precedence 57

The Order of Precedence 58

Controlling the Order of Precedence 58

Working with Numeric Expressions 60

VBA’s Math Functions 60

VBA’s Financial Functions 62

Working with String Expressions 63

Working with Logical Expressions 66

TheAndOperator 67

TheOrOperator 67

TheXorOperator 67

TheNotOperator 67

Working with Date Expressions 68

5 Working with Objects 71

What Is an Object? 71

The Object Hierarchy 73

Working with Object Properties 73

Setting the Value of a Property 75

Returning the Value of a Property 75

Working with Object Methods 75

Handling Object Events 77

Working with Object Collections 78

Assigning an Object to a Variable 79

TheIsOperator 80

Working with Multiple Properties or Methods 80

Example: The ApplicationObject 81

Displaying a Message in the Status Bar 82

Changing the Title Bar Caption 82

Working with the Application Window 82

Accessing an Application’s Built-In Dialog Boxes 83

Checking Spelling 87

Example: The WindowObject 88

Specifying a WindowObject 88

Opening a New Window 88

Activating a Window 88

From Here 89

6 Controlling Your VBA Code 91

Code That Makes Decisions 91

UsingIf Thento Make True/False Decisions 92

UsingIf Then Elseto Handle a False Result 93

Making Multiple Decisions 94

Using the AndandOrOperators 95

Using Multiple If Then ElseStatements 95

Using the Select CaseStatement 97

Functions That Make Decisions 101

TheIIfFunction 101

TheChooseFunction 102

TheSwitchFunction 103

Code That Loops 104

UsingDo LoopStructures 105

UsingFor NextLoops 106

UsingFor Each NextLoops 109

v

Contents

UsingExitFor or Exit Doto Exit a Loop 110

Indenting for Readability 111

From Here 111

II PUTTING VBA TO WORK 7 Programming Word 115

Working with Documents 115

Specifying a DocumentObject 115

Opening a Document 116

TheRecentFilesObject 116

Creating a New Document 118

Saving a Document 118

Closing a Document 121

Closing All Open Documents 121

Example: Making Document Backups 122

Working with Text 124

Working with the RangeObject 125

TheRangeMethod 125

TheRangeProperty 125

Reading and Changing Range Text 126

Formatting Text 126

Inserting Text 127

Deleting Text 128

Using the SelectionObject 129

Checking the SelectionType 129

Moving the Insertion Point 130

Extending the Selection 131

Collapsing the Selection 132

Using the WordsObject 132

Working with the SentencesObject 133

Displaying Sentence Word Counts 134

Programming the ParagraphObject 136

From Here 138

8 Programming Excel 139

Excel’s Application Object 139

Accessing Worksheet Functions 139

Recalculating Workbooks 140

Converting a String into an Object 140

Pausing a Running Macro 141

ManipulatingWorkbookObjects 146

Specifying a WorkbookObject 146

Opening a Workbook 146

Creating a New Workbook 147

Specifying the Number of Sheets in a New Workbook 147

Saving Every Open Workbook 148

Closing a Workbook 150

Dealing with WorksheetObjects 150

Specifying a WorksheetObject 150

Creating a New Worksheet 151

Properties of the WorksheetObject 151

Methods of the WorksheetObject 152

Working with RangeObjects 153

Returning a RangeObject 153

Selecting a Cell or Range 158

Defining a Range Name 162

Inserting Data into a Range 162

Returning Data About a Range 163

Resizing a Range 163

From Here 164

9 Programming PowerPoint 165

PowerPoint’s PresentationObject 165

Specifying a PresentationObject 165

Opening a Presentation 166

Creating a New Presentation 166

PresentationObject Properties 166

PresentationObject Methods 167

The Juggling Application 168

Working with PowerPoint Slide Objects 170

Specifying a Slide 170

Creating a New Slide 171

Inserting Slides from a File 172

SlideObject Properties 172

The Juggling Application: Creating the Slides 173

SlideObject Methods 174

Dealing with ShapeObjects 174

Specifying a Shape 174

Adding Shapes to a Slide 175

SomeShapeObject Properties 178

The Juggling Application: Creating the Title Slide 180

SomeShapeObject Methods 181

vii

Contents

Operating a Slide Show 186

Slide Show Transitions 186

Slide Show Settings 187

Running the Slide Show 187

From Here 188

10 Programming Access Databases 189

Getting Ready: Two Steps Before You Begin 190

Step One: Create a Reference 190

Step Two: Create a Data Source 191

Working with Database Records: Opening a Recordset 192

Opening a Recordset Using a Table 193

Opening a Recordset: the Full OpenMethod Syntax 194

Opening a Recordset Using a SELECTString 196

Working with a Recordset 198

Getting at the Recordset Data 198

Navigating Records 199

Finding a Record 202

Editing a Record 203

Adding a New Record 205

Deleting a Record 207

Retrieving Data into Excel 208

Retrieving an Individual Field Value 208

Retrieving One or More Entire Rows 208

Retrieving an Entire Recordset 210

From Here 212

11 Programming Outlook Email 213

Getting Started 213

Working with Outlook Folders 214

Referencing Default Folders 214

Using the FoldersProperty 214

Prompting the User for a Folder 216

SomeMAPIFolderMethods 217

Handling Incoming and Outgoing Messages 217

Incoming: Handling the ItemAddEvent 218

Outgoing: Handling the ItemSendEvent 219

Working with Email Messages 220

MailItemObject Properties 220

MailItemObject Methods 221

Example: Creating Advanced Rules for Incoming Messages 223

Example: Canning Spam 224

Sending a Message 225

Creating a New Message 225

Specifying the Message Recipients 226

Sending the Message 226

Example: Supplementing a Reminder with an Email Message 227

Working with Attachments 229

Example: Removing Attachments from a Forwarded Message 229

Attaching a File to a Message 230

Programming Outlook from Other Applications 231

Setting Up a Reference to Outlook 231

Getting the NameSpaceObject 232

Logging On to an Outlook Session 232

Logging Off an Outlook Session 233

From Here 234

III GETTING THE MOST OUT OF VBA 12 Creating Custom VBA Dialog Boxes 237

Adding a Form to Your Project 238

Changing the Form’s Design-Time Properties 239

The Appearance Category 239

The Behavior Category 239

The Font Category 240

The Misc Category 240

The Picture Category 241

The Position Category 241

The Scrolling Category 241

Working with Controls 242

Inserting Controls on a Form 242

Selecting Controls 243

Sizing Controls 244

Moving Controls 244

Copying Controls 244

Deleting Controls 245

Grouping Controls 245

Setting Control Properties 246

Common Control Properties 246

Setting the Tab Order 247

Handling Form Events 248

Types of Form Controls 248

Command Buttons 249

Labels 249

Text Boxes 249

Frames 250

ix

Contents

Check Boxes 251

Toggle Buttons 251

List Boxes 251

Scrollbars 253

Spin Buttons 253

Tab Strips and MultiPage Controls 254

Using a Form in a Procedure 258

Displaying the Form 258

Unloading the Form 258

Processing the Form Results 259

From Here 262

13 Customizing the Office 2007 Ribbon 263

Understanding Ribbon Extensibility 263

Extending the Ribbon: An Example 265

Step 1: Create a Macro-Enabled Office Document or Template 265

Step 2: Create a Text File and Add the Custom XML Markup 267

Step 3: Copy the Custom XML Markup File to the Document Package 268

Step 4: Rename and Open the Document 269

More Complexity Means More Power 270

Hiding the Built-In Ribbon 270

Creating Custom Tabs 271

Creating a New Tab 271

Customizing an Existing Tab 272

Creating Custom Groups 273

Creating a New Group 274

Customizing an Existing Group 274

Creating Custom Controls 275

Common Control Attributes 276

Creating a Button 277

Creating a Menu 278

Creating a Split Button 280

Creating a Check Box 281

Creating a Toggle Button 282

Creating a Drop-Down List 284

Creating a Gallery 285

Creating a Combo Box 288

Creating a Dialog Launcher 289

Working with Ribbon Commands at Runtime 289

From Here 297

14 VBA Tips and Techniques 299

Working with Modules 299

Renaming a Module 299

Importing a Module 300

Removing a Module 301

Configuring Macro Security Settings 301

Setting Up a Trusted Location 301

Setting the Macro Security Level 302

Digitally Signing a VBA Project 304

Saving Application Settings in the Registry 305

Storing Settings in the Registry 306

Reading Settings from the Registry 306

Deleting Settings from the Registry 307

Tracking File Usage 307

Reading All the Section Settings 309

Accessing the File System Through VBA 309

Returning File and Folder Information 310

Manipulating Files and Folders 314

Tips for Faster Procedures 319

Turn Off Screen Updating 319

Hide Your Documents 319

Don’t Select Data Unless You Have To 319

In Excel, Don’t Recalculate Until You Have To 319

Optimize Your Loops 320

From Here 321

15 Trapping Program Errors 323

A Basic Error-Trapping Strategy 324

Setting the Trap 324

Coding the Error Handler 325

Resuming Program Execution 327

Disabling the Trap 330

Working with the ErrObject 330

ErrObject Properties 330

ErrObject Methods 332

Trappable VBA Errors 333

From Here 336

16 Debugging VBA Procedures 337

A Basic Strategy for Debugging 338

Syntax Errors 338

Compile Errors 338

Runtime Errors 338

Logic Errors 339

Pausing a Procedure 339

Entering Break Mode 340

Exiting Break Mode 342

xi

Contents

Stepping Through a Procedure 342

Stepping into a Procedure 343

Stepping Over a Procedure 343

Stepping Out of a Procedure 343

Stepping to the Cursor 343

Monitoring Procedure Values 344

Using the Locals Window 344

Adding a Watch Expression 344

Editing a Watch Expression 346

Deleting a Watch Expression 346

Displaying Data Values Quickly 347

Using the Immediate Window 348

Printing Data in the Immediate Window 348

Executing Statements in the Immediate Window 350

Debugging Tips 350

Indent Your Code for Readability 350

Turn on Syntax Checking 351

Require Variable Declarations 351

Break Down Complex Procedures 351

Enter VBA Keywords in Lowercase 351

Comment Out Problem Statements 351

Break Up Long Statements 351

Use Excel’s Range Names Whenever Possible 352

Take Advantage of User-Defined Constants 352

From Here 352

IV APPENDIXES A VBA Statements 355

B VBA Functions 361

Index 371

About the Author

Paul McFedries is well-known as a teacher of Office, Windows, and programming,

partic-ularly VBA He is the president of Logophilia Limited, a technical writing company Paulstarted programming when he was a teenager in the mid-1970s and has worked with every-thing from mainframes to desktops to bar code scanners He has programmed in many dif-ferent languages, including Fortran, assembly language, C++, Java, JavaScript, Visual Basic,and VBScript He has been writing programs for PCs for more than 25 years, and has beendeveloping VBA applications since Microsoft first added VBA to the Office suite in 1994.Now primarily a writer, Paul has written more than 50 books that have sold more than

three million copies worldwide These books include Access 2007 Forms, Reports, and Queries (Que, 2007), Formulas and Functions with Excel 2007 (Que, 2007), Tricks of the Office 2007

Gurus (Que, 2007), and Windows Vista Unleashed (Sams, 2006).

To Karen and Gypsy.

Acknowledgments

Robert Pirsig, in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, wrote that “a person who sees

Quality and feels it as he works, is a person who cares.” If this book is a quality product(and I immodestly think that it is), it’s because the people at Que editorial cared enough tomake it so

So a round of hearty thanks is in order for all the good people who worked on this project.You’ll find them all listed near the front of the book, but I’d like to extend special kudos tothe folks I worked with directly: Acquisitions Editor Loretta Yates, Development EditorTodd Brakke, Production Editor Betsy Harris, Copy Editor Margo Catts, and Tech EditorGreg Perry

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I N T H I S I N T R O D U C T I O N

Introduction

What Is a Macro? xviii What Does VBA Have to Do with Macros? xix What You Should Know Before Reading This Book xix What’s in the Book xx This Book’s Special Features xx

Visual Basic for Applications is a mouthful to say

(which is why I’ll use the standard short form—

VBA—from now on), but it also seems like it would

be a real handful to learn After all, this is a

pro-gramming language we’re talking about, right?

True, but VBA was designed to be easy to learn and

straightforward to apply I’ve learned a couple of

dozen programming languages over the past 30

years or so, and I can tell you that VBA is, hands

down, the easiest language I’ve ever worked with

Okay, but isn’t this stuff just for power users and the

staff of the Information Technology department?

Yes, VBA is a useful tool for hardcore users and

those who need to design major projects But VBA

can be immensely useful for every user As a writer,

I use Word constantly, and over the years I’ve

developed dozens of small macros, functions, and

forms that streamline or automate repetitive chores

Most of these routines consist of only a few lines of

code, and each one saves me only about 30 seconds

to a minute, depending on the task But I use these

routines 50 or 100 times a day, so I end up saving

myself anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes a day!

That’s pretty remarkable, but the proof is in the

pudding: I can now write far more pages in a day

than I used to (Don’t tell my editor!)

Whether your concern is ease-of-use or personal

productivity, there’s little doubt VBA can make

working with the Office applications a better

expe-rience So now all you have to do is learn how to

use it, and that’s where this book comes in My goal

in writing this book was to give you an introduction

to the VBA language, and to give you plenty of

examples for putting the language to good use

Even if you’ve never even programmed your VCR,

this book will teach you VBA programming from

the ground up The first six chapters, in particular,

give you all the know-how you’ll need to be a

com-petent and productive programmer

I N T R O D U C T I O N

What Is a Macro?

It doesn’t matter in which Office program you’re working—it could be Word, it could beExcel, it could be PowerPoint A few times a day you probably find yourself performingsome chore that either you’ve done dozens of times in the past, or that you have to repeat anumber of times in a row It could be typing and formatting a section of text, running aseries of menu commands, or editing a document in a particular way If you’re like mostpeople, when faced with these repetitive chores, you probably find yourself wishing therewas some way to ease the drudgery and reduce the time taken by this mindless but neces-sary work

Sure, most of the Office applications have a Repeat button on the Quick Access Toolbarthat lets you repeat your most recent action That’s handy, but it repeats only a singleaction If you need to repeat two or more actions, this solution doesn’t work

What’s a person to do about this? Well, what if I told you that it was possible to automate

just about any routine and repetitive task? What if I told you that it was possible to take thisautomated task and run it immediately simply by selecting a command or even by justpressing a key or clicking a button?

It sounds too good to be true, I know, but that’s just what Visual Basic for Applications

(VBA) can do for you You use VBA to create something called a macro, which is really just

a series of tasks that you want a program to perform So a macro is not unlike a recipe,which is a set of instructions that tells you what tasks to perform to cook or bake some-thing A macro, too, is a set of instructions, but in this case it tells a program (such as Word

or Excel) what tasks to perform to accomplish some goal

The big difference, however, is that a macro combines all these instructions into a singlescript that you can invoke with a keystroke or just a few mouse clicks In this sense, then, amacro isn’t so much like a recipe for, say, how to bake bread, but is more akin to a breadmachine, which, after it has been loaded with ingredients, bakes a loaf with the push of abutton

This list of instructions is composed mostly of macro statements Some of these statements

perform specific macro-related tasks, but most correspond to the underlying application’scommands and dialog box options For example, in any application, you can close the cur-rent (active) window by selecting the Office menu’s Close command In a VBA macro, thefollowing statement does the same thing:

ActiveWindow.Close

What You Should Know Before Reading This Book

What Does VBA Have to Do with Macros?

VBA is a programming language designed specifically for creating application macros Thatsounds intimidating, I’m sure, but VBA’s biggest advantage is that it’s just plain easier to usethan most programming languages If you don’t want to do any programming, VBA enablesyou to record macros and attach them to buttons either inside a document or on the QuickAccess Toolbar (as you’ll see in Chapter 1) You also can create your own dialog boxes by

“drawing” the appropriate controls onto a document Other visual tools enable you to tomize the Ribbon as well, so you have everything you need to create simple scripts withoutwriting a line of code

cus-Of course, if you want to truly unleash VBA’s capabilities, you’ll need to augment your

interface with programming code That sounds pretty fancy, but the VBA language is structed in such a way that it’s fairly easy to get started and to figure things out as you go

con-along More than any other programming language, VBA enables you to do productive

things without climbing a huge learning curve

What You Should Know Before Reading This Book

First and foremost, this book does not assume that you’ve programmed before VBA

begin-ners are welcome here and will find the text to their liking

I’ve tried to keep the chapters focused on the topic at hand and unburdened with

long-winded theoretical discussions For the most part, each chapter gets right down to brass

tacks without much fuss and bother To keep the chapters uncluttered, I’ve made a few

assumptions about what you know and don’t know:

folders

and work with tools such as menus, dialog boxes, and the Help system

mouse, printer, and modem

work with Office 2000, Office XP, and Office 2003 Therefore, I assume you’ve used

these Office programs for a while and are comfortable working with these programs

What’s in the Book

This book isn’t meant to be read from cover to cover, although you’re certainly free to dojust that if the mood strikes you Instead, most of the chapters are set up as self-containedunits that you can dip into at will to extract whatever nuggets of information you need.However, if you’re a beginning VBA programmer, I recommend working through Chapters

1 to 6 to ensure that you have a thorough grounding in the fundamentals of the VBA editorand the VBA language

The book is divided into four main parts To give you the big picture before diving in,here’s a summary of what you’ll find in each part:

Part 1, “Getting Started with VBA”—The half dozen chapters in Part 1 give you a

thorough grounding in VBA You start off easy by learning how to create and runrecorded macros, which doesn’t require any programming (Chapter 1) In Chapters 2though 6, you learn the basics of the VBA language, which you’ll use in earnestthroughout the rest of the book

Part 2, “Putting VBA to Work”—The five chapters in Part 2 enable you to put

your VBA programming knowledge to good and practical use by showing you how toprogram the five main Office applications: Word (Chapter 7), Excel (Chapter 8),PowerPoint (Chapter 9), Access (Chapter 10), and Outlook (Chapter 11)

Part 3, “Getting the Most Out of VBA”—The five chapters in Part 3 augment

your VBA toolkit with lots of useful techniques You learn how to interact with users(Chapter 12), how to create custom dialog boxes (Chapter 13), how to create customRibbon tabs and buttons (Chapter 14), how to debug your VBA code (Chapter 15),and how to use VBA to control other applications (Chapter 16)

Appendixes—The book finishes with two appendixes that you can use as a reference.

Appendix A lists all the VBA statements, and Appendix B lists all the VBA functions

This Book’s Special Features

VBA for the 2007 Microsoft Office System is designed to give you the information you need

without making you wade through ponderous explanations and interminable technical ground To make your life easier, this book includes various features and conventions thathelp you get the most out of the book and VBA itself

back-■ Things you type: Whenever I suggest that you type something, what you type appears

in a bold font.

■ Commands: I use the following style for Ribbon commands: View, Macros This

means that you click the Ribbon’s View tab, and then click the Macros button

■ Dialog box controls: Dialog box controls have underlined accelerator keys: Close.

This Book’s Special Features

■ Visual Basic keywords: Keywords reserved in the VBA language appear in monospacetype

■ Code-continuation character ( ➥): When a statement is too long to fit on one line of

this book, I break it at a convenient place, and add the code-continuation character atthe beginning of the next line

This book also uses the following boxes to draw your attention to important (or merely

interesting) information

➔ These cross-reference elements point you to related material elsewhere in the book

The Note box presents asides that give you more information about the topic under discussion

These tidbits provide extra insights that give you a better understanding of the task at hand

The all-important Caution box tells you about potential accidents waiting to happen.There are

always ways to mess things up when you’re working with computers.These boxes help you avoid atleast some of the pitfalls

C A U T I O N

IN THIS

I

Getting Started with VBA

1 Creating and Running Recorded Macros 3

2 Writing Your Own Macros 15

3 Understanding Program Variables 33

4 Building VBA Expressions 53

5 Working with Objects 71

6 Controlling Your VBA Code 91

I N T H I S C H A P T E R

Creating and Running

Recorded Macros

1

This book is about programming, but for certain

tasks you may not need to do any programming at

all That’s because VBA in Word and Excel lets you

create a macro automatically by recording a set of

steps you perform in the program (Unfortunately,

the other programs in the 2007 Office suite don’t

have macro recording capabilities.) This is by far

the easiest way to create a macro With this

method, you start the macro recording feature and

then run through the operations you want to

auto-mate—which can include selecting text, running

commands from the Ribbon (the Office 2007

replacement for the menus and toolbars in previous

versions of Office), and choosing dialog box

options The macro recorder takes note of

every-thing you do, translates everyevery-thing into the

appro-priate VBA programming statements, and stores

them where you can easily rerun the macro later

on If you’re just starting out with VBA (or

pro-gramming in general), recording macros is a great

way to get your feet wet because you never have to

work with or even see a single line of programming

code

Recording a VBA Macro 5 Running a Recorded Macro 8

Even if you’re an experienced programmer and plan only to write

your own VBA code, you should still know how to record macros

That’s because it’s often easiest to begin a VBA procedure by

record-ing some of the actions you need.This way,VBA does much of the

work for you, and you can then tweak the resulting code by hand

What kinds of things should you record? Just about any operation that’s lengthy—it could

be either a single complex task or multiple, related tasks—or tedious, and that you performrelatively often You can probably think of several operations right off the bat Here arefour common ideas:

■ Multiple find and replace actions—It’s common in business to get a document that

requires a number of adjustments throughout: converting one style to another, ing formatting, deleting extra line breaks, changing two spaces after each sentence toone space, and so on Each of these operations requires a separate Replace command.That’s fine for one document, but if you have a number of documents or documentsthat you receive regularly, the task becomes inefficient and tedious You can avoid thedrudgery by recording all the Replace operations to a single macro, and then runningthat macro each time you receive a document that requires those adjustments

remov-■ Automate repetitive steps—Working with certain documents, you may find that you

need to run certain steps to fix or adjust text For example, the paragraphs in a ment may all be indented by, say, five spaces rather than a First Line Indent marker onthe Ruler If the document consists of dozens of paragraphs, adjusting them all by hand

docu-is no one’s idea of fun However, it would be easy to record a macro that moves to thestart of the paragraph, deletes the five spaces, and then applies the first line indent Ifyou assign a shortcut key or Quick Access toolbar button to the macro, you can runthrough all the paragraphs very quickly

■ Window adjustments—Unless you run all your documents maximized, you probably

have a certain spot on the screen where you like to work For example, you might wantyour document windows adjusted so that you can see your Outlook window and moni-tor incoming email while you work Similarly, you might prefer that your documentsuse the most vertical room possible, which means adjusting the size so that the top isflush with the top of the screen, and the bottom is flush with the Windows taskbar.These position and size adjustments aren’t difficult, but if you regularly work withdozens of documents during the day, it can be a pain to be constantly tweaking thewindow as you open each document A better idea is to record the window adjustments

to a macro and then run that macro each time you open a document

■ Common steps for new documents—It’s quite common to have to run several steps

with some or all of the new documents you create In Word, for example, when youcreate a new document you might always insert a certain cover page, activate theDocument Map, switch to Draft view, and display the Document Properties informa-tion panel so you can set the document’s Title, Subject, and Keywords Depending onthe number of tasks you run, all this can take a number of minutes By recording thesame steps to a macro, however, you can perform them in seconds and with just a fewmouse clicks or a single keystroke

Recording macros is endlessly useful, and after you get the hang of it, you’ll likely findyourself recording all kinds of routine operations (and therefore saving yourself tons oftime, to boot)

1

Recording a VBA Macro

Recording a VBA Macro

As I mentioned earlier, only Word and Excel come with the Record Macro command,

which is a shame (In Office 2003, you could record macros in PowerPoint, too.) However,these two programs are the most suited to recording macros, so it’s not all that surprising

that Microsoft has restricted the Office macro recording capabilities The next two sectionsshow you how to record a macro in Word and Excel

Recording a Word Macro

Before getting started, make sure that Word is set up so that it’s ready to record If you

want to perform your actions on a specific document, for example, make sure that

docu-ment is open Similarly, if you want to record a series of formatting options, select the textyou want to work with Here are the steps to follow to record a macro in Word:

also click the Macro Recording button in the status bar If you don’t see the Macro

Recording button, right-click the status bar and then click Macro Recording.) The

Record Macro dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 1.1

1

Figure 1.1

Use Word’s version of the

Record Macro dialog box

to name and describe

your macro

Name text box to change the name to something more meaningful However, you

must follow a few naming conventions:

• No more than 255 characters (That sounds like a lot, and it is Because you mayoccasionally have to type macro names, I recommend keeping the names rela-

tively short to save wear and tear on your typing fingers.)

• The first character must be a letter or an underscore (_)

• No spaces or periods are allowed

3. Use the Store Macro In drop-down list to specify where the macro will reside I ommend keeping the default All Documents (Normal.dotm) option This saves themacro in the Normal template, which makes it available all the time (You can alsostore the macro in any open template, which makes the macro available to any docu-ment that uses the template, or in any open document, which makes the macro avail-able only to that document.)

mind during the recording:

• Word gives you two indications that a recording is in progress (see Figure 1.2):the mouse pointer includes what looks like a cassette tape icon, and the statusbar’s Record Macro button changes to a blue square

• The mouse works only for selecting Ribbon commands and dialog box options

If you need to change the document cursor position or select text, you need touse the keyboard

• Because the macro recorder takes note of everything you do, be careful not to

perform any extraneous keyboard actions or mouse clicks during the recording

1

You’ll see later on that one way to run a recorded macro is to select it from a list of all your recordedmacros If you create a lot of macros this way, that list will get long in a hurry.Therefore, when nam-ing your recorded macros, make sure you assign names that will make it easy to differentiate onemacro from another Names such as Macro1andMacro2tell you nothing, but names such as

AdjustWindowSizeandNewDocumentTasksare instantly understandable

the mouse pointer

and Record Macro

button

Mouse pointer Record Macro button

Recording a VBA Macro

Stop Recording (or click the Macro Recording button in the status bar)

Recording an Excel Macro

Before launching your recording in Excel, make sure the program is set up as required Forexample, open the workbook and select the worksheet you want to use during the record-ing Here are the steps to follow to record a macro in Excel:

also click the Macro Recording button in the status bar.) The Record Macro dialog

box appears Figure 1.3 shows the Excel version

1

Figure 1.3

Use Excel’s Record Macro

dialog box to name and

describe your macro

descrip-tive (Follow the same naming conventions as I outlined in the previous section.)

macro Note, however, that this is optional because VBA offers other ways to run yourrecorded macros (see “Running a Recorded Macro,” later in this chapter)

store the macro in the current workbook, a new workbook, or in the Personal Macro

Workbook If you use the Personal Macro Workbook, your macros will be available toall your workbooks

Excel’s Personal Macro Workbook doesn’t exist until you assign at least one recorded macro to it

After you do that, the Personal Macro Workbook (its filename is PERSONAL.XLSB) opens cally every time you start Excel.This is useful because any macros contained in this file will be avail-able to all your workbooks, which makes them easy to reuse Note, however, that you don’t see thePersonal Macro Workbook when you start Excel because the file is hidden If you want to see thisworkbook, you have to first unhide it: Choose the View, Unhide command, select Personal in theUnhide dialog box, and then click OK

5. Enter an optional description of the macro in the Description text box.

mind during the recording:

• Excel gives you just one indication that a recording is in progress: The statusbar’s Record Macro button changes to a blue square (see Figure 1.2, earlier)

• Unlike Word, Excel makes the mouse available for all actions

• Because the macro recorder takes note of everything you do, be careful not to

perform any extraneous keyboard actions or mouse clicks during the recording

Stop Recording (or click the Macro Recording button in status bar)

Running a Recorded Macro

In almost all cases, you record a macro so that you can run it again in the future, probably anumber of times depending on the tasks you recorded (The exception would be, as I men-tioned earlier, if you record a macro to use as a starting point for writing your own code.)

So after you record a macro, how do you get it to run again? There are three main ods you can use: the Macro Name list, a shortcut key, and a Quick Access toolbar button

meth-Using the Macro Name List

The Macro Name list is a listing of all your recorded macros (It also contains macros youcreate by hand, as discussed in the next chapter.) This means that all your recorded macrosare as little as four mouse clicks away, as you see in the following steps:

run (for example, open a document, move the cursor into position, or select text)

Figure 1.4), although in Excel it’s called the Macro dialog box

macro

1

Running a Recorded Macro

Assigning Shortcut Keys to Recorded Word Macros

If you have a recorded macro that you’ll be using frequently, even the few mouse clicks

required to run the macro from the Macro Name list can seem excessive A faster tive is to assign a shortcut key to the macro, which means you can run the macro by press-ing the shortcut key

alterna-To assign a shortcut key in Word, follow these steps:

• If you haven’t recorded the macro yet, choose View, pull down the Macros list,

and then choose Record Macro Fill in the macro details (name, storage location,and description) first, and then click Keyboard Skip to step 4

• If you’ve already recorded the macro, choose Office, Word Options, click ize, and then click the Customize button beside the Keyboard Shortcuts text

displays your macros in the Macros list

to use One of two things will happen:

Figure 1.5 This means no other command is using the shortcut key, so proceed

to step 5

1

Figure 1.4

Use the Macro Name list

to select the macro you

want to run

• Word displays Currently Assigned To, followed by the name of a command.This means that another Word command (or macro) is already using the short-cut key Repeat step 4 until you find an unassigned shortcut key.

C A U T I O N

Assigning Shortcut Keys to Recorded Excel Macros

If you want to assign a shortcut key to a recorded Excel macro, you have two ways to getstarted:

then choose Record Macro Fill in the macro details (name, storage location, anddescription) first, and then click Keyboard Skip to step 4

If you have trouble remembering your keyboard shortcuts, you can get Word to print out a list ofthem Choose Office, Print to open the Print dialog box In the Print What list, click Key Assignments,and then click OK

Running a Recorded Macro

the Macro dialog box Click the macro you want to work with and then click Options

to display the Macro Options dialog box shown in Figure 1.6

1

Figure 1.6

Use the Macro Options

dialog box to assign a

shortcut key to a macro

In the Shortcut Key Ctrl+ text box, type the letter you want to use with Ctrl for the key

Click OK

Excel shortcut keys are case sensitive, meaning you can create separate shortcuts with uppercaseand lowercase letters For example, if you type einto the Ctrl+ text box, you have to press Ctrl+E(or, to be precise, Ctrl+e) to run the macro However, if you type Einto the Ctrl+ text box, you have

to press Ctrl+Shift+E to run the macro

Creating a Quick Access Toolbar Button for a Recorded Macro

The only problem most people have with assigning shortcut keys to macros is ing which shortcut runs which macro! The more shortcuts you assign, the harder it gets toremember them all and the more likely it is that you’ll press an incorrect shortcut key by

remember-mistake What many VBA veterans do is assign just a few shortcut keys to their most

fre-quently used macros, and other macros that they need handy they assign to the Quick

Make sure you don’t specify a shortcut key that conflicts with Excel’s built-in shortcuts (such asCtrl+B for Bold or Ctrl+C for Copy) If you use a key that clashes with an Excel shortcut, Excel over-rides its own shortcut and runs your macro instead (provided that the workbook containing themacro is open)

There are only four letters not assigned to Excel commands that you can use with your macros: e, j,

m, and q You can get extra shortcut keys by using uppercase letters Note, however, that Excel usesfour built-in Ctrl+Shift shortcuts: A, F, O, and P

C A U T I O N

Access toolbar This is a great way to run oft-used macros because they’re only a click awayand you can assign different icons to each macro to help you differentiate them.

Follow these steps in either Word or Excel to create a Quick Access toolbar button for amacro:

The application’s Options dialog box appears with the Customize tab displayed

macro to the list of Quick Access toolbar buttons

buttons and then click Modify The Modify Button dialog box appears, as shown inFigure 1.7

1

Figure 1.7

Use the Modify

Button dialog box to

assign an icon and

display name to your

macro button

the mouse pointer over the button

Running a Recorded Macro

From Here

pro-cedures and enter your own VBA statements in Chapter 2, “Writing Your Own

Macros.”

that in Chapter 3, “Understanding Program Variables.”

“Building VBA Expressions,” to learn more

in Chapter 5, “Working with Objects.” Also, see Part II, “Putting VBA to Work,” to

get the specifics on the objects used in Word, Excel, and other Office applications

that control program flow I discuss these statements in Chapter 6, “Controlling YourVBA Code.”

1

In its default position above the Ribbon, the Quick Access toolbar can display only so many buttons

If you want to add lots of buttons for your macros (or other program commands), move the QuickAccess toolbar below the Ribbon Click the Customize Quick Access Toolbar button and then chooseShow Below the Ribbon

I N T H I S C H A P T E R

Writing Your Own Macros

2

Letting VBA do all the work by recording your

macros is an easy way to automate tasks, and it’s a

technique you’ll use often However, to get the

most out of VBA you need to do some full-fledged

programming, which means writing your own

macros, either from scratch or by using a recorded

macro as a starting point

Why go to all that trouble? Here are just a few of

the advantages you gain by doing this:

particularly one that requires a large number of

steps, you can make a simple edit to the

macro’s VBA code to fix the mistake rather

than re-record the whole thing from scratch

means you ensure that your macros do exactly

what you need them to do

VBA to manipulate the Office programs and to

perform some impressive programming feats

that are simply not available via the recording

process

To help you realize these advantages and many

more, this chapter introduces you to the basics of

writing simple procedures and functions, as well as

how to get around in the Visual Basic Editor, which

is the tool that VBA provides for writing macros by

hand This sets the stage for the next few chapters,

where I take a closer look at the specifics of the

VBA language

Activating the Ribbon’s Developer Tab 16 Displaying the Visual Basic Editor 16 Touring the Visual Basic Editor 17 Understanding VBA Procedures 19 Creating a Command Macro 19 Creating a User-Defined Function 23 Taking Advantage of IntelliSense 27 Shutting Down the Visual Basic Editor 30

Activating the Ribbon’s Developer Tab

If you’ll be writing VBA code regularly, you can make some coding chores a bit more cient by displaying the new Developer tab in the Office 2007 Ribbon This tab gives youone-click access to many VBA-related features, so it’s worth displaying Follow these steps:

program, such as Word or Excel)

some VBA features

Displaying the Visual Basic Editor

To get the Visual Basic Editor onscreen in any Office program, choose Developer, VisualBasic (Note, however, that for simplicity’s sake, I use a single Office application—Excel—for the examples throughout this chapter.) Figure 2.2 shows the new window that appears(although bear in mind that the window you see may be slightly different)

You can also get to the Visual Basic Editor by pressing Alt+F11 In fact, this key combination is a gle that switches you between the Visual Basic Editor and the current Office program

Touring the Visual Basic Editor

Touring the Visual Basic Editor

The idea behind the Visual Basic Editor is simple: It’s a separate program that’s designed to

do nothing else but help you create and edit VBA macros (In professional programming

circles, the Visual Basic Editor is called an integrated development environment or IDE.)

When you open the Visual Basic Editor for the first time, you don’t see much The left side

of the editor has two windows labeled Project and Properties The latter you don’t need toworry about right now (I’ll talk about it in Chapter 5, “Working with Objects.”) The

Project window (technically, it’s called the Project Explorer) shows you the contents of the

current VBA project In simplest terms, a project is an Office file and all its associated VBA

items, including its macros and its user forms (You learn about user forms in Chapter 12,

“Creating Custom VBA Dialog Boxes.”)

Creating a New Module

You do most of your work in the Visual Basic Editor within one or more modules, which are

windows designed to hold programming code You may already have an existing module ifyou recorded some macros in the previous chapter Just in case, here are the steps to follow

to create a new module:

project into which you want to insert the new module Here are some notes to bear inmind:

• In Word, if you want the new module’s macros to be available all the time, clickthe Normal project (this adds the module to the Normal template)

2

Figure 2.2

You use the Visual Basic

Editor to craft and edit

your macros