Course Description

Overview:

VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) enables you to enhance and extend the capabilities of Microsoft® Excel® and other applications in the Microsoft® 365 application suite. You can use VBA to perform tasks that would be difficult or impossible to do using only worksheet functions, and you can automate a wide range of tasks involving the collection, processing, analysis, and visualization of data. This course will give you a good foundation for understanding, creating, and using VBA in your own Excel workbooks, show you how to work with data across different applications, and how to package the macros and functions you create so you can back them up, move them to other computers, and share them with other users.

Course Objectives:

In this course, you will develop and deploy VBA modules to solve business problems. You will:

• Identify general components of VBA and their appropriate use in solving business solutions.

• Record VBA macros to automate repetitive tasks.

• Use reference tools built into Excel to get help on VBA programming language and objects used in the Excel VBA environment.

• Write VBA code to create a custom worksheet function.

• Eliminate, avoid, or handle errors in VBA code, and optimize its performance.

• Control how and when macros run.

• Develop UserForm objects to create custom dialog boxes and windows.

• Use VBA to read and write data from local files and cloud services.

• Use VBA to clean and transform data.

• Run programs and commands outside of Excel and share VBA projects with other users.

Target Student:

This course is primarily designed for students who want to gain the skills necessary to use VBA to automate tasks in Excel such as collecting data from external sources, cleaning, and manipulating data. The target student may also want to learn how to create custom worksheet functions to streamline worksheet formulas and make complex worksheets easier to support, maintain, and understand.

Prerequisites:

To ensure your success in this course, you should be an experienced Excel user who is comfortable creating and working with Excel workbooks, including tasks such as entering worksheet formulas, using absolute and relative addressing, formatting cells, and creating pivot tables and charts. This level of skill could be acquired by taking the Microsoft® Excel® for Office 365 (Desktop or Online) courses, Parts 1, 2, and 3.

Course-specific Technical Requirements

Hardware:

For this course, you will need one computer for each student and one for the instructor. Each computer will need the following minimum hardware configurations:

• 1.1 GHz or faster 64-bit processor, at least 2-core

• At least 4 GB RAM

• 50 GB available disk space

• DirectX 9 or later graphics card and a 1,280 x 1,024 or higher resolution monitor

• Keyboard and mouse (or other pointing device)

• Network cards and cabling for local network access

• Internet access (contact your local network administrator)

• Projection system to display the instructor's computer screen

Software:

• Microsoft® Windows® 10 Professional or Enterprise

• Microsoft® 365

NOTE: This course was keyed and tested using Microsoft® 365, although you should be able to use other recent editions and versions (such as Office 2021 LTSC or Office 2019) to perform the activities in this course. However, there will be some minor differences that affect screen shots and minor activity steps. If you plan to use a different version or edition of the software, we recommend that you key the course before you present it, so you'll be able to anticipate any differences from what is shown in the course materials.

Course Content

Lesson 1: Using VBA to Solve Business Problems

Topic A: Use Macros to Automate Tasks in Excel

Topic B: Identify Components of Macro-Enabled Workbooks

Topic C: Configure the Excel VBA Environment

Lesson 2: Automating Repetitive Tasks

Topic A: Use the Macro Recorder to Create a VBA Macro

Topic B: Record a Macro with Relative Addressing

Topic C: Delete Macros and Modules

Topic D: Identify Strategies for Using the Macro Recorder

Lesson 3: Getting Help on VBA

Topic A: Use VBA Help

Topic B: Use the Object Browser to Discover Objects You Can Use in VBA

Topic C: Use the Immediate Window to Explore Object Properties and Methods

Lesson 4: Creating Custom Worksheet Functions

Topic A: Create a Custom Function

Topic B: Make Decisions in Code

Topic C: Work with Variables

Topic D: Perform Repetitive Tasks

Lesson 5: Improving Your VBA Code

Topic A: Debug VBA Errors

Topic B: Deal with Errors

Topic C: Improve Macro Performance

Lesson 6: Controlling How and When Macros Run

Topic A: Prompt the User for Information

Topic B: Configure Macros to Run Automatically

Lesson 7: Developing Custom Forms

Topic A: Display a Custom Dialog Box

Topic B: Program Form Events

Lesson 8: Using VBA to Work with Files

Topic A: Use VBA to Get File and Directory Structure

Topic B: Use VBA to Read Text Files

Topic C: Use VBA to Write Text Files

Lesson 9: Using VBA to Clean and Transform Data

Topic A: Automate Power Query

Topic B: Transform Data Using VBA and Workbook Functions

Topic C: Use Regular Expressions

Topic D: Manage Errors in Data

Lesson 10: Extending the Programming Environment Beyond the Workbook

Topic A: Run Other Programs and Commands

Topic B: Share Your VBA Projects