Excel VBA Tutorial for Beginners

If you are new to VBA and do not know anything about it, this is the best tutorial for beginners to start their journey in Excel VBA macrosVBA MacrosVBA Macros are the lines of code that instruct the excel to do specific tasks, i.e., once the code is written in Visual Basic Editor (VBE), the user can quickly execute the same task at any time in the workbook. It thus eliminates the repetitive, monotonous tasks and automates the process.read more. So, let us start the journey of your VBA tutorials today.

VBA is Visual Basic for Applications is the Microsoft programming language for Microsoft products like Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. It will do all the programming we wish to do in the VBE (Visual Basic Editor). For example, VBE is the platform to write our code of tasks to execute in Excel.

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What are the Macros in Excel?

A Macro is nothing but a line of code to instruct Excel to do a specific task. Once we write the code in VBA, we can execute the same task at any time in the workbook.

The Macro code can eliminate repetitive, boring tasks and automate the process. Let us record the Macro to start with the VBA Macro codingVBA Macro CodingVBA code refers to a set of instructions written by the user in the Visual Basic Applications programming language on a Visual Basic Editor (VBE) to perform a specific task.read more technique.

VBA coding is available under the DEVELOPER tab in excelDEVELOPER Tab In ExcelEnabling the developer tab in excel can help the user perform various functions for VBA, Macros and Add-ins like importing and exporting XML, designing forms, etc. This tab is disabled by default on excel; thus, the user needs to enable it first from the options menu.read more.

If you do not see this Developer tab in your Excel, follow the below steps to enable the Developer tab in Excel.

You will see the “Excel Options” window. Select “Customize Ribbon in ExcelRibbon In ExcelRibbons in Excel 2016 are designed to help you easily locate the command you want to use. Ribbons are organized into logical groups called Tabs, each of which has its own set of functions.read more.

Now, you should see the “Developer” tab.

Tutorial to Record Macros in VBA Excel

In this tutorial about VBA, we will learn how to record macros in ExcelRecord Macros In ExcelRecording macros is a method whereby excel stores the tasks performed by the user. Every time a macro is run, these exact actions are performed automatically. Macros are created in either the View tab (under the “macros” drop-down) or the Developer tab of Excel. read more with practical examples.

Example #1

We will start straight away by recording Macro.

Under the Developer tab, click on Record Macro.

As soon as you click on the “Record Macro,” you will see Excel asks you to give a name to your Macro.

Give a proper name to Macro. The Macro should not contain any space characters and special characters. You can give underscore (_) as the word separator.

From now onwards, the Macro recorder keeps recording all your activities in the Excel sheet.

So, firstly, we will select cell A1.

Now, we will type “Welcome to VBA” in the A1 cell.

Now, we will click on the “Stop Recording” option under the “Developer” tab to stop the recording.

So, Excel stops recording the activities we do in Excel. Now, let us see how Excel recorded the activities.

Under the Developer tab, click on “Visual Basic.”

As soon as you click on “Visual Basic,” we will see below the window.

Double-click on “Modules.”

Now, we will see the code on the right-hand side. Macro code started with the word SUB.

All the Macro has two parts: Head and Tail. In addition, every Macro has a name.

Excel recorded all the activities between the head and tail of the Macro.

The first thing we did after recording the Macro was select cell A1 and Excel recorded it as Range (“A1”). Select.

The second activity was when we entered the value “Welcome to VBA.” When we selected it, it became an active cell, so Excel recorded the activity as ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = “Welcome to VBA.”

Note: R1C1 is row 1, column 1.

The third activity is after typing the word “Welcome to VBA,” we press the “Enter” key, and Excel selects the A2 cell. So, Excel recorded the activity as Range (“A2”). Select

Like this, “Macro Recorder” recorded all our activities in the Excel sheet. Now, delete the word in cell A1.

After deleting the word, go to VBE, where our code is once again.

Click on the RUN button to enter the same text value to cell A1.

Note: Shortcut key to run the code is F5.

So, Macro executed, and we got the same value again. Like this, we can automate our daily routine work to save time and eliminate boring daily tasks.

Example #2

Now, let us record one more Macro to understand better. In this recording, we will insert serial numbers from A1 to A10.

Go to the DEVELOPER tab and click on the “Record Macro” option.

Click on “OK” to start the recording. First, we will enter 1, 2, and 3. Then, we will drag the fill handle to insert serial numbers.

Now, click on “Stop Recording.”

Go to Visual Basic Editor and see what the code is.

Let us look at the code now.

Firstly, we have selected cell A1.

Code:

Range (“A1”).Select

Secondly, we have inserted 1 into the active cell.

ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = “1”

The third activity was when we selected cell A2.

Range (“A2”).Select

The fourth activity was we inserted 2 into the active cell.

ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = “2”

The fifth activity was when we selected cell A3.

Range (“A3”).Select

In the sixth activity we inserted 3 into the active cell.

ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = “3”

Then, we selected the range of cells from A1 to A3.

Range (“A1:A3”).Select

After selecting the cells, we filled the serial numbers using the fill handleUsing The Fill HandleThe fill handle in Excel allows you to avoid copying and pasting each value into cells and instead use patterns to fill out the information. This tiny cross is a versatile tool in the Excel suite that can be used for data entry, data transformation, and many other applications.read more.

Selection.AutoFill Destination:=Range(“A1:A10”), Type:=xlFillDefault

So finally, we have selected the range A1 to A10.

Range (“A1:A10”).Select

So, you can run this code whenever we want to insert serial numbers from 1 to 10 in cells A1 to A10.

How to Save Macro Workbook?

The Excel workbook containing Macro code should save as Macro-Enabled Workbook. Then, click on Save As in excelSave As In ExcelSave as is located in the worksheet’s file tab. It can be accessed from the quick access toolbar or by pressing F12 and choosing “save as,” or CTRL + S, which opens the save as dialogue box to save the file.read more and select the file extension as “Macro-Enabled Workbook.”

Things to Remember

  • It is just the introduction part of VBA. Keep following our blog to see more posts as we advance.Recording Macro is the best initialization to start the journey of Macros.Record more and more activities and see what the code is.

This article is a guide to VBA Tutorial for beginners. Here, we discuss steps to enable the Developer tab and learn how to record macros in Excel VBA and practical examples. Below you can find some useful Excel VBA articles: –

  • VBA Font Color ExamplesPivot Table using VBA CodeHow to Paste in VBA?How to Select Cell in VBA?