How to avoid using Select/Activate - excel

Question

How do I avoid using select/activate in my macro (to help speed it up)?
The macro goes through each row on a worksheet; if the QTY is greater than zero (in column C), then it calls another macro to open a specific workbook (workbook name in column A), makes some changes and then closes that workbook.
Sub Update_All_Workbooks()
Dim LastRow As Long
Dim DataRange As Range
Dim WB As Workbook
Dim WS As Worksheet
Set WB = ActiveWorkbook
Set WS = ActiveSheet
LastRow = Cells(Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Row
Set DataRange = Sheets("TestA").Range("A3:A" & LastRow)
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
WB.Sheets("TestA").Activate
Range("C3").Select
For Each Row In DataRange
If ActiveCell > 0 Then
Call Open_Update_Close_WB
WB.Sheets("TestA").Activate
ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Select
Else
ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Select
End If
Next Row
WS.Activate
End Sub

Answer 1

Its quite a change in perspective to move from using select to using references but in the long run, code is much better when using references.
I hop the code below is useful to you.
Option Explicit
Sub Update_All_Workbooks()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
Dim myWB As Workbook
Set myWB = ActiveWorkbook
' We set myWS on the basis of the unqualified Cell method used in th original code
Dim myWS As Worksheet
Set myWS = myWB.ActiveSheet
Dim LastRow As Long
LastRow = myWS.Cells(Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Row
' Pull the filenames into a VBA array
' So we don't keep having to refder to a Worksheet
' The transpose method is used to convert the pseudo 2D array
' to a correct 1D array
Dim myWbNames As Variant
Set myWbNames = myWB.Application.WorksheetFunction.Transpose(myWS.Range("A3:A" & LastRow).Value)
' Similar to above, you can extract the QTY values in
' column C to a VBA array
Dim myQTY As Variant
Set myQTY = myWB.Application.WorksheetFunction.Transpose(myWS.Range("C3:C" & LastRow).Value)
' Because we are processing two arrays (col a and col c)
' its easier to use a standard for loop with an index than a for each loop
Dim myIndex As Variant
For myIndex = LBound(myWbNames) To UBound(myWbNames)
If myQTY(myIndex) > 0 Then
Open_Update_Close_WB myWbNames(myIndex)
End If
Next
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
Application.DisplayAlerts = True
End Sub
' Underscores have significance in Method names as they are used in
' interface and event declarations
' Therefore it is good practise to get used to NOT using underscores
' for Method names that do not involve an interface
Public Sub OpenUpdateCloseWB(ByVal ipWbName As String)
End Sub