What Is VBA? VBA advantages You can automate almost anything you do in Excel. To do so, you write instructions that Excel carries out. Automating a task by using VBA offers several advantages: Excel always executes the task in exactly the same way. (In most cases, consistency is a good thing.) Excel performs the task much faster than you can do it manually (unless, of course, you’re Clark Kent). If you’re a good macro programmer, Excel always performs the task without errors (which probably can’t be said about you or me). If you set things up properly, someone who doesn’t know. | __Chapter 1 What Is VBA 15 VBA advantages You can automate almost anything you do in Excel. To do so you write instructions that Excel carries out. Automating a task by using VBA offers several advantages Excel always executes the task in exactly the same way. In most cases consistency is a good thing. Excel performs the task much faster than you can do it manually unless of course you re Clark Kent . If you re a good macro programmer Excel always performs the task without errors which probably can t be said about you or me . If you set things up properly someone who doesn t know anything about Excel can perform the task. You can do things in Excel that are otherwise impossible which can make you a very popular person around the office. For long time-consuming tasks you don t have to sit in front of your computer and get bored. Excel does the work while you hang out at the water cooler. VBA disadvantages It s only fair that I give equal time to listing the disadvantages or potential disadvantages of VBA You have to find out how to write programs in VBA but that s why you bought this book right . Fortunately it s not as difficult as you might expect. Other people who need to use your VBA programs must have their own copies of Excel. It would be nice if you could press a button that transforms your Excel VBA application into a stand-alone program but that isn t possible and probably never will be . Sometimes things go wrong. In other words you can t blindly assume that your VBA program will always work correctly under all circumstances. Welcome to the world of debugging and if others are using your macros technical support. VBA is a moving target. As you know Microsoft is continually upgrading Excel. Even though Microsoft puts great effort into compatibility between versions you may discover that VBA code you ve written for Excel 2007 doesn t work properly with older versions or with a future version of Excel. 16 Part I
