Excel 2019 Power Programming with VBA

For most of us, the path to Excel VBA programming starts with the need to perform some task that can’t be done with the standard tools in Excel. That task is different for each of us. Maybe that task is to create separate workbooks automatically for all the rows in a data set. Maybe that task is to automate the emailing of dozens of reports. Whatever that task is for you, you can bet that someone has started their own journey into Excel VBA with the same need.

The beautiful thing about Excel VBA is that you don’t have to be an expert to start solving problems with it. You can learn just enough to solve a particular problem, or you can go further and discover ways to handle all kinds of automation scenarios.

Whatever your goals may be, Excel 2019 Power Programming with VBA will help you harness the power of the VBA language to automate tasks, work smarter, and be more productive.

Topics Covered

This book focuses on Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), the programming language built into Excel (and other applications that make up Microsoft Office). More specifically, it shows you how to write programs that automate various tasks in Excel. This book covers everything from recording simple macros through creating sophisticated user-oriented applications and utilities.

You can approach this book in any way you please. You can read it from cover to cover, or you can skip around, picking up useful tidbits here and there. VBA programming is often a task-oriented endeavor. So, if you’re faced with a challenging task, you might try the index first to see where the book might specifically address your problem.

This book does not cover Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO), a technology that uses Visual Basic .NET and Microsoft Visual C#. VSTO can also be used to control Excel and other Microsoft Office applications.

As you may know, Excel 2019 is available for other platforms. For example, you can use Microsoft’s Excel Web App in your browser and even iPads and tablets. These versions do not support VBA. In other words, this book is for the desktop version of Excel 2019 for Windows.

What You Need to Know

This is not a book for beginning Excel users. If you have no experience with Excel, a better choice might be the Excel 2019 Bible (Wiley, 2018), which provides comprehensive coverage of all the features of Excel and is meant for users of all levels.

To get the most out of this book, you should be a relatively experienced Excel user who knows how to do the following:

• Create workbooks, insert sheets, save files, and so on
• Navigate through a workbook
• Use the Excel Ribbon user interface
• Enter formulas
• Use Excel’s worksheet functions
• Name cells and ranges
• Use basic Windows features, such as file management techniques and the Clipboard

What You Need to Have

Excel is available in several versions, including a web version and a version for tablets and phones. This book was written exclusively for the desktop version of Microsoft Excel 2019 for Windows. If you plan to develop applications that will be used in earlier versions of Excel, we strongly suggest you use the earliest version of Excel that your target audience will be using. Over the last few years, Microsoft has adopted an agile release cycle for the web version of Excel with Office 365, generating release updates practically on a monthly basis.

It is important to have a full installation of Excel, and if you want to try the more advanced chapters involving communication between Excel and other Office applications, you will need a full installation of Office.

The version of Windows you use is not important. Any computer system that can run Windows will suffice, but you’ll be much better off with a fast machine with plenty of memory. Excel is a large program, and using it on a slower system or a system with minimal memory can be extremely frustrating.

Please note that this book is not applicable to Microsoft Excel for Mac.