What is VBA in Excel?

Imagine automating mundane tasks, designing custom solutions, and transforming your data into something dynamic and interactive in Microsoft Excel—all with a bit of code! These are the possibilities unlocked by Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)! Integrating VBA is like adding extra fuel to your spreadsheets for greater performance. 

This blog explores What is VBA in Excel and how it can expand your skills beyond formulas and functions by enabling interactivity, automation, email handling and more. Read on and learn how to excel in the world of Excel!

Table of Content

1) What is VBA in Excel? 

2) Why to Use VBA in Excel?

3) What can You do With VBA?

4) How to Access Excel VBA in Excel?

5) Conclusion

What is VBA in Excel?

Microsoft developed Visual Basic for Applications, an event-driven Programming Language used to build office applications. It is provided free of cost to Microsoft Office users to create small programs. It is helpful to add new functions to your Office Applications and in the MS Office suite. Additionally, you may utilise this tool to engage readers of your document in ways unique to your organisation's demands.  

VBA is a subset of Visual Basic 6.0, where Basic stands for Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. VBA can be used to develop automation processes, Windows PI and user-defined functions. Besides, it is used to analyse large volumes of data and create and maintain complex financial models. You can also manipulate the user interface features of the host applications using VBA.

Why to Use VBA in Excel?

VBA allows you to write instructions for creating various apps using English statements. You may simply drag and drop the interface controls in VBA's user interface, making it easy to use and understand. It also allows you to modify Excel's functions based on your requirements.  Now, Let's see ways in which you can leverage VBA to get your tasks done quickly: 

To Analyse Large Volumes of Data 

Professionals in the finance domain must review large volumes of data in their daily activities. They must review all the data and derive insight to benefit the business. So, if you also belong to the finance sector, this tool will help you. With this tool's help, the macros could be designed so that the data can be analysed quickly.

To Automate repetitive Tasks 

VBA is the best solution for you if you regularly perform the same tasks on Excel. You can easily automate all these tasks and others that you have to do more than 100 times. This tool supports you with automating almost all editing changes you do yourself.

Customising User Interaction

Sometimes, you want your users to engage with an Office application or document in a different way that is not included in the default application. You might wish to ask users to perform something specifically, for instance, when they open, save, or print a document. You can easily do this with VBA.

To Create and Maintain Complex Financial Models

If you work in the financial sector, VBA can be a handy tool for developing trading and pricing models. This can also be useful to other professionals, such as project managers, who are preparing risk management models. The VBA program can create financial ratios that let analysts examine the patterns and performance of two or more entities over a specified period.

To Forecast Investment Decisions

Financial analysts and investment bankers frequently have to choose between two or more investment situations. For instance, finance specialists must consider a merger's financial implications to decide whether it is feasible. To get an overview of the projected outcomes, experts can use VBA to construct macros that simulate investment situations. Decision-makers can use the results obtained to make informed decisions.

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What can You do with VBA?

 Now that you know What is VBA in Excel is, let’s have a look at some of its common uses. Some of the main uses of VBA in Excel include the following:

1) Automation: Eliminate most of the manual or repetitive tasks associated with Excel, Word, PowerPoint, or any other Office application. For example, use VBA in Excel to format documents, automatically generate complex spreadsheets, or update PowerPoint presentations.

2) Custom Functions: Make custom functions in Excel that can be called directly within cell formulas. That helps with the custom calculations not offered within the standard list of Basic Excel Functions.

3) Interactivity: Make your documents and spreadsheets livelier by using VBA to respond to user’s actions, like clicking on a button or changing the value in a cell. This way, your documents and spreadsheets become more dynamic and, hence, easier to use.

4) Integration: You can make the Office applications work together, for example, by taking data from an Excel worksheet using VBA and then automatically creating a PowerPoint slideshow out of that data.  

5) Data Analysis: You can do more complex data analysis tasks than what could be done with standard Excel tools such as PivotTables and charts. VBA can process vast volumes of data and perform complex calculations and even statistical analysis.  

6) Database Management: This allows you to connect external databases, either from Excel or Access, through VBA. It also allows you to manipulate data from the respective database right within the Office applications.  

7) Custom Forms and Controls: Create user-friendly and custom user forms for entering data and interacting with the user in either Excel or Access. This will increase usability in both your spreadsheets and databases and allow for a friendly interface with which you can interact.

8) User Interface Customisation: You can modify an Office application menu, toolbar, or dialogue box by adding your own or changing the existing one. This lets you standardise your workflow and increase access to commands that are normally used.

9) Email Handling: Automate the sending and receiving of processed emails in Outlook. This can be done by writing an add-in for Outlook with VBA that could generate emails when something gets triggered or triggered, thus automating the email sending and receiving process .

How to Access VBA in Excel?  

When you press Alt + F11 to access the VBA window in any Office program, you will see the file structure tree on the top left with the following on your screen: 

a) Bottom left – Properties 

b) Bottom centre and bottom right – debug pane 

c) 3)    The Majority of the screen is in the centre and top right – the coding section 

Here’s what it will look like:

Most users are typically engaged in coding-related tasks. Only new macro files created using the file structure section are utilised for this purpose. Only more complex macros that employ User Forms to design graphical user interfaces for the macro will make use of the properties section in the macro's bottom left. 

The majority of the code is done in the coding part. Here, you can design, program, and save macros. Once the macro code has been created and saved, it can be connected to particular Excel model triggers. The macro can be started by pressing a worksheet button or changing specific cells. Additionally, the easiest way to use a macro is to attach it to a particular button.   

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Conclusion 

Understanding What is VBA in Excel is essential for any user to unleash the true potential of Microsoft Excel. It enhances the software’s capabilities, allowing users to automate tasks, manage complex data, and develop customised solutions. You can streamline workflows and tailor Excel to meet your business needs by leveraging VBA.

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