We can programmatically control the features of ms-office application using VBA. This customization is done in Visual Basic 6 editor which is built-in feature of all office application like MS Excel. We use Visual Basic language to write programming code. Any piece of code written in VBA is called a MACRO.

Whenever we need to work with Excel objects, we shall write a macro to achieve our goal. What we can we do with a macro? Anything which we can do visually, we can also do that by writing code. For example we can turn font into bold face using CTRL+B key. We can also do this by writing a macro. In addition to this we can do much more with VBA. Excel has a built-in mechanism to record macros. Recording a macro means that excel creates corresponding VBA commands of our visual actions. These commands become procedures in VBA. We can run these procedures (MACORS) by a short key or by pressing button. For section explains how to record a simple macro in excel 2007.

First you need to turn own Developer tab in excel. Click on round Microsoft office button of top left corner of excel workbook. And click on Excel Options button. Excel options window will open. Here click on “Show developer tab on ribbon” checkbox as shown in figure below. Our required option is red circled in figure below.

Turn on Developer tab in excel

Now you can see that developer table is visible in ribbon. Click on developer tab and click on “Record macro” as shown in figure below (Red circled).

Record Excel Macro

A “record macro” dialog box will appear. Name your macro as “MyfirstMacro” and type “r” in short key box and click OK button. After recording this macro you will be able to run this macro using CTRL+r key. As shown in figure below.

Macro recorder Dialog box

Now click on cell B2 and type RED, GREEN in cell C2 and BLUE in D2. And click on stop recording button (Red circled in below figure).

Stop Macro Recorder

We have recorded a macro that can fill B2,C2,D2 cell with basic colors. Now simply click on sheet 2 and press CTRL+r key. You will see that B2 ,C2,D2 cells of second sheet have been filled.

This was a very simple macro. Practically we shall have complex macros doing really tricky and beneficial things dealing with cells, charts and worksheet.

Now on developer tab, press on “Visual Basic” which is left to place where you clicked to record macro. Visual basic editor will open. Here expand modules on left side and double click on module1 icon. This will show command recoded by this macro as shown in figure below.

VBA code for Macro

Now you can save you sheet with .xlsm extension. You cannot save an excel sheet with .xlsx extension which contains a macro. Next time when you open your saved file, you will see a security warning from Excel that macros have been disabled. As a result of this you can no more run macros in this sheet. To resolve this click on option button next to security warning and click on “Enable this content” option button. Or you can add you folder (you excel macro file) as trusted location by going to Excel option.

VBA can be used in any Office Application like MS Word, MS PowerPoint, MS Access or in MS Excel. To work with a specific application you are required to learn objects contained in that particular application. Many modern programming languages like VB.Net work around objects. In addition to working with pre-defined objects, you can create your own objects in these languages. VBA is an object based language but you are not required to create new objects in VBA. You will work with pre-defined set of objects. Objects in Ms Excel are arranged in a specific manner. The structure of objects in MS Excel is known as Excel Object Model.

If you are interested in Excel VBA, you must understand Excel Object Model. In Excel every component is an object. A worksheet is an object, a chart is an object. A cell or collection of cells is represented by RANGE object. Each object has some properties, methods and events associated with it. We can manipulate these objects using these methods and properties. For example we can change the data inside a cell using RANGE object. We can programmatically print a sheet in workbook using PRINTOUT method of WORKSHEET object. We can copy content of cell to another cell using COPY method of RANGE object. So working in VBA is just working with these objects. All core programming tools like LOOPs and control structures are provided in VB language. By using Excel Objects with all power of Vb language, we can solve our problem with ease, speed and style. Similarly, if you are working in Ms Word, you will work with objects like PARAGRAPH, DOCUMENT etc.

In Excel object model, EXCEL APPLICATION is top most objects. Then comes the WORKBOOK object, then WORKSHEETS and then others small objects like RANGE, CHARTS etc. More than 200 objects are available in EXCEL VBA 2007. You can visit following link to explore more details of Excel Object Model

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb149081.aspx

If exact match is not found, vlookup function can return value by approximate match.

Syntax:

VLOOKUP (lookup_value,table_array,col_index_num,range_lookup)

Lookup_value: this is the value to be found

Table_arry: this is the range which contains data

Col_index: this is the number of the column which will be returned on successful match. For example, if col_index is 2 then value in second column from left of given range is returned.

Range_lookup: range_lookup can be either TRUE or FALSE. If it is FALSE, then value will be returned on exact match. If range_lookup is TRUE or omitted and exact match is not found then next largest value which is less than lookup_value is returned.

#N/A error is returned if no match is found.

Vlookup Example:

Following picture contains data of products. Out task is to find out price of product no. 2034. To achieve this, use following formula

=VLOOKUP(2034,B6:E10,4,FALSE)

In above function, 2034 is the value to be search, B6:E10 is our data range and 4th column is returned when exact match is found as shown in figure below

If you want to find the unit of product No. 2034, use following formula

=VLOOKUP(2034,B6:E10,3,FALSE)

What will happen if we use same formula for product No. 2070 as shown below.

=VLOOKUP(2070,B6:E10,4,FALSE)

As Product 2070 is not in out data, #N/A error will returned

But if we use TRUE in last argument of function, excel will match it with largest value which is less than 2070. Hence product no 2069 is match and it price which 6 will be returned as show in figure below.

To set Data Validation in Excel do the following steps.

Create a result card for a student, select all cells in which validation rule is to be set and click on Data menu and again click on Validation.

In excel 2007 click on Data menu and click on Data Validation in Data Tools group.

A data validation Dialog box will appear as shown in figure below. Figure also shows the result card of student.

Now we have to set a validation rule that no student can get more than 100 marks. So in the settings tab of Data validation Dialog box, choose whole number in allow field and 0 to 100 range in Minimum and Maximum fields as shown in figure above.

If you want to show a message to user to help in data entry, you can do this in Input Message tab. This message appears when focus is on the cell.

In Error Alert tab, enter error message. When user enters value in the cell, excel validates this value against validation rule and displays error message if value does not stratify the rule. There are three Style available in Error Alert tab, Stop, Warning, Information. Stop do not allow user to navigate away from cell without entering correct value. Warning and Information just intimate user and focus is shifted to next cell.

To test this enter a 150 in cell c7 and press enter, an error message appears and will keep on displaying until you provide correct value or cancel as shown in figure below.

Note that the value in the cell C6 is violating validation rule. This is because validation rule was set after data entry in C6. Excels allows this but provides a way solve this problem.

In excel 2003, Click on Tools menu, point to Formula Auditing and click on Formula Auditing Tool Bar. On the tool bar, click on Circle Invalid data icon.

In excel 2007, click on Data tab and in Data Tools group click on Data validation Arrow and clink on Circle Invalid data.

As a result of this excel will encircle invalid data as shown in figure.

Let begin our exercise. First type a letter in Microsoft word. Figure A shows a letter types in Microsoft Word

Figure A

Figure B contains a list of address in Address.Xls file. For the sake of simplicity I have created a list of five contacts. You may keep hundreds of contacts.

Figure B

Figure C shows us out desired result. After this exercise we shall have separate copy of letter for each contact like figure C.

Figure C

Step 1

Open Ms Word file containing our letter.

In Ms word 2003 click on Tools menu and pint to Letters and Mailings and click on Mail Merge.

In Ms Word 2007 clink on Mailings menu. Now click on Start Mail Merger and then clink on Step by Step Mail Merge Wizard…

A task pane will open to right of the document as shown in Figure D

Figure D

Click on Next: Start Document at bottom of Task Pane

Step 2

In this step Word asks as which letter document we want to use. We may use an existing document and current one. We will use Current Document, so simply click on Next: Select Recipients at Bottom of Task pane.

Step 3

Here click on browse button and browse the Address.xls file which contains our address list and click open. If your excel file contains more than one sheet then choose the sheet which is required one. After choosing sheet you will see a window like under in Figure E

Figure E

This windows shows all contacts from excel sheet. Here you can exclude few Addresses. Now click on OK button and click on Next: write Your Letter from bottom of task pane.

Step 4

Now insert a blank row at top of your typed letter. Place your cursor on that blank row and click on more items from task pane. A small “Insert Merge Filed” window will appear showing two columns, address and name. Click on Name field and click on Insert button. Note a Name filed has been inserted at top of the letter as shown in figure F below.

Figure F

Click on cancel and insert a new row below Address filed in you letter. In second row inset Address filed by following previous steps. If you want to make formatting changes to your letter, you can make here. After formatting your letter click on Next: Preview you Letter at the bottom of task pane.

Step 5

Here you can preview all of you letter by clicking on >> and << buttons. You can also Exclude and include recipients by clicking on Edit recipients List. Click on Next: complete the merge to go to 6^th and final step.

Step 6

Now click on print to print all the letters. If you want to create a copy of each letter then click on Edit Individual Letter and clink ok. All of your letters will be displayed in a new Word document.

Following are some examples of Advanced Filter

Example 1

Criteria: Find all products which have “juice” in their name, the aim is to get sale of all juices on a given date.

We shall begin with data shown in figure below. Advanced filter is different from Auto Filter. In Advanced Filter, criteria are given in cells above the actual data. As you can see in picture below our data is in range from A6 to E15 but we have similar headings above the data. Doing this we have created a criteria range available from A2 to E4. Remember we must keep an empty row between our data and criteria.

Figure A (Advanced Filter)

Now in the cell C3 type following

=”=*Juice*”

And press Enter key. This evaluate into =*juice*

Now click on Data menu, point to Filter and click on Advanced Filter, the Advanced Filter dialog box appears.

In “List Range” enter range from A6 to E15 and in  “Criteria range” enter range from B2 to B3 as shown in Figure B.

Figure B (Advanced Filter)

Now click Ok button on dialog box. You will see rows containing only juice related products as shown in figure below

.

Figure C (Advanced Filter)

Now click on Data menu, point to Filter and click on Show All. This will reset all the data .

Now in cell A3 type following

=”=02-jan-2007’

And press Enter key. This evaluate into =02-jan-2007. Now we have two criteria, as a result of this, rows satisfying both conditions will be shown. Now Apply Advanced filter again from Data menu and enter ranges as shown in figure below.

Figure D (Advanced Filter)

Now our results on contains “Juice Products” sales of 02-jan-2007.

As our both condition are on same row, it means AND between both conditions. If conditions are not on the same row for example if =02-jan-2007 criteria is typed in cell A4, this implies OR between condition. In this case all rows satisfying either of two conditions will be shown in filtered data.

Example 2

Criteria: Filter out row that has minimum sale.

Click on Data menu, point to Filter and click on Show All. This will reset all the data.

In Cell F3 type a formula as shown in figure below

Figure E (Advanced Filter)

Now apply Advanced Filter from Data menu and enter ranges as shown in figure below

Figure F (Advanced Filter)

Now click OK button, the final result is the row containing minimum sale figure as shown in figure blow.

Figure G (Advanced Filter)

Figure below shows date wise sale data of products. For the sake of simplicity it contains only three dates and three products; in reality you may have hundreds of products showing whole year sale.

Sample worksheet for AutoFilter

AutoFilter

AutoFilter provides ready made basic filters. This can be done just selecting from a drop down list.

To apply excel filter select cells from B4 to B13 and click on Data menu, point to Filter and click on AutoFilter as shown in below figure B.

Figure B for AutoFilter

A drop down arrow appears in B4 column. If you click on arrow it show ready made filter criteria. Now click on arrow and choose “Product A”. This will filter “Product A” as shown in figure C

Notice two choices in drop down, top 10 and custom. To examine this, clear filter by clicking on Data menu, point to Filter and again click on AutoFilter. Now select cells in Value column from E4 to E14 and apply AutoFilter as before. As shown in figure D.

Figure D for AutoFilter

Now click on arrow in value and choose “Top 10”, the Top 10 AutoFilter Dialog Box appears. Now click in the middle box delete 10 and type 2 and click ok as shown in figure E.

Figure E for AutoFilter

Now the filtered result only contains top two sales in “Value” column.

If you want to check sales values greater than $500, click on arrow and click on “(Cusotm…)”, the Custom AutoFilter Dialog box appears. Here fill values as shown in figure and click ok.

Figure F for AutoFilter

Now filtered results contain only sales values grater than 500.

Now here is problem what will you if you want to find sales values greater than 500 on 02-jan-07. To do this remove filters and select all the data and apply filters as shown in figure G.

Figure G for AutoFilter

A filter option for all columns is available now, from first column choose “02-jan-07” and apply custom filter on “Value”.

=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(”esp“,D7)),MID(D7,SEARCH(“esp“,D7),LEN(”esp“)),”")

note bold face “esp” in the string, this is the string which will be searched in cell D7.

after applying you will get result as shown in figure below. Here cell “E” contains your desired results.

search string in excel

If you feel any problem in foumal after copy paste. Try typing foumla manaually.