Excel Macros
(Advanced Level)

At the beginners level you have discovered the programming environment (Visual Basic Editor and Macro Recorder). At the intermediate level you have learned a lot of VBA words (code). At this advanced level you will learn about userforms, variables, loops, functions and how to get data outside of Excel. You will also learn how to use other Microsoft programs from Excel using VBA.

Follow the Program

First and foremost an advanced user of VBA for Excel masters the variables (lesson 2-9).  You create them and you insert anything in them (numbers, letters and even entire sheets) and you get Excel to do this repetitive work that you so sincerely hate to do by yourself.

In lesson 2-10 you will learn how to work with statements. With "Do/Loop" or "For/Next" what your macro now does one time it will do tens, hundreds and thousands of times without you having to click on the button again. When you want certain things to happen just in certain conditions "If/Else/End If" and "Select Case/End Select" will make sure that it is what happens.....

In lesson 2-11 you will learn about functions. You will learn how to create new Excel functions (changing $49.65 into forty nine dollars and sixty five cents for example) how to work with VBA functions (Trim, Round, UCase, LCase, Timer, etc.).

In lesson 2-12 learn how to work with external database using the SQL language. Get access to ALL the data within your enterprise AUTOMATICALLY.

In lesson 2-13 learn how to work with the other objects (charts and drawings, pivot tables, etc..) and how to run FROM Excel the other Microsoft Programs like Access, Word, Notepad, Project and even Windows with the API's

Then the impressive part begins. Discover the userforms and their controls (lessons 3-1 to 3-10). You will be able to design forms to set their properties, to add controls to them (command buttons, text boxes, combo boxes, etc ) and to develop VBA procedures to use these forms and their data.

The advanced level is a never ending story. Even after 15 years of programming I discover new fascinating things.

Are there limits to what you can do with Excel?

Not really. The limit is the budget but then if you tell your boss or client how much money he/she will make or save with your applications even the budget becomes a flexible concept. Always talk in terms of return on investment when you talk about your project and they will listen.

For example at a certain point you will discover the variable of the VARIANT type and you will start working with huge sets of data or make things happen much faster. With basic VBA you improve the time necessary to do things from hours to minutes with advanced VBA (the Variant) you improve the time from minutes to fractions of seconds.