Freezing certain cells - VBA - excel

I have a question about freezing certain cells. But first let me explain the situation.
I have made a search box in my excel sheet and when you search for a letter or word; the results show up in cells below the search box. Now I want to freeze those cells, so that wherever I go in my sheet. I can always use the search box and see the results.
The cells for the searchbox and results are B2:B25. Those are the ones I want to freeze. Also the only sheet I want to use this on is the sheet "Reading". On the rest of my sheets I do not use a search function.
So my question(s) is : Do I need to put the code inside a module or on that sheet, and how do I do this?
Now I have tried the following
Range(Cells(2,2), Cells(25, 2)).Select
ActiveWindow(or maybe Reading?).FreezePanes = True
Inside a module. But it did not work and I do not know what else to do.
Any help is much appreciated! Since I am very new to VBA.

Almost there. Problem is that the 'range' and 'cells' needs to be directed to the 'Reading' sheet, like so:
Sheets("Reading").Range(Sheets("Reading").Cells(2,2), Sheets("Reading").Cells(25, 2)).Select
ActiveWindow.FreezePanes = True
but if it always is B2->B25, why not use:
Sheets("Reading").Range("B2:B25").Select
ActiveWindow.FreezePanes = True
This should work. Select is not very desirable, because it is very slow, but in this case, you need to (as far as I know).
EDIT
BTW, you can do this from within a code module or from within a sheet, but if you choose to do it from within a sheet, you cannot select another sheet. So just use the range.
EDIT 2
whoopsy, typo corrected. 'Sheet' should have been 'Sheets'

Related

How to insert a column in Excel using VBA?

Please help me with the code to insert a column in excel using vba. Here is what I am doing -
Sheet1.Range("A:A").EntireColumn.insert
That code works fine for me.
Sheet1.Range("A:A").Insert works also. Range("A:A") is already referencing an EntireColumn.
There are a few things to check if it's not working for you:
You're referencing an object called Sheet1. Is that definitely the codename of the worksheet you want to change? Make sure you understand the difference between sheet name and codename. You could try referencing it by the sheet's name instead: Worksheets("Tabname").Range("A:A")...
Is the worksheet protected? That would give you an error if it is.
Is there any data in the right-most column of the spreadsheet? That would also cause an error as Excel doesn't know what to do with it. If you're not 100% sure, select the entire right-most column of the sheet and hit delete to remove anything that might cause an issue.
Lastly, can you insert a column manually? i.e. select left most column, [right-click] and [Insert]?
I think you got the Sheets property wrong, this works for me :
Sheets(1).Range("A:A").EntireColumn.Insert
You should clearly mention what you are trying to do; what type of problem you are facing.
However, you should try out the below code. hope this will help
Sheet1.Range("A:A").EntireColumn.Insert Shift:=xlToRight
while inserting a new row or column make sure to refer to the entire row or column. Check if there are any marge cells at the right of column A. That can possibly be causing the problem.
Sub TryMe()
Columns(1).Insert
End Sub
Also, this is a very generic question. If you can Google something and figure it out in a fraction of the time that it takes to craft a question and post it on SO, just Google it. If your question is very unique, and after hitting multiple dead ends using Google, then ask the SO community. I found the 3 links below using a Google search that took around 1 second.
https://www.automateexcel.com/vba/insert-row-column/
https://excelchamps.com/vba/insert-column/
https://www.educba.com/vba-insert-column/

Excel: How can I hide the Selection Box flying around?

I have the following code to simulate some cells behave like buttons
Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
'Application.ScreenUpdating = False
If Target.Cells.Count = 1 Then
'~~~~~~ pseudocode ~~~~~~
If {select cell is one of the chose ones}
{do some stuff}
End If
'~~~~~~ pseudocode ~~~~~~
End If
Range("A1").Select
'Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
It doesn't matter whereas I use the ScreenUpdating code, the "Selection box" is flying around from A1 to the selected cell and back and it make the sheet much slower.
Can this flying (animation) selection box be stoped?
So far I have found this, not possible to hide, but noting about the flying efect:
Hide the cell selection box in Excel
Edit:
I need (I think so) edit capabilities on the sheet, therefore the option of not changing selection cell is not applicable. Due to:
most of the sheet is informative, and should be available for copy (not edited)
some cells are input forms (free text thing), selection as usual
some cells should behave like buttons (plus/minus for a numeric value, sclaes, simple stuff, but thousand of then, so much easier do/maintain by code), and user must not edit them
grouping should be available, (so that's complicate protecting the sheet)
I am not closed to the option : Range("A1").Select after each (most) of user interaction, but no other method comes into mind to me now.
An example:
I know some would say: "you should make this out from excel", and I agree with you, but this is a mandatory thing, I do not have the power to raise this question
As you can see, I got the "flying selection" that I try to get rid off
cell A1 is already hodden, that will do most of the trick
final version sure will go with hidden gridlines and headlines
rows groups exist, and are important, so no protection possible
all the functionality, I can do easy with vba, just problem with the animation
Maybe this is not the answer that you have been waiting for, but as Mathieu mentioned in his comment, please try to avoid using Selection.
It does make things slower and often causes errors (in example try selecting cell from hidden sheet). Instead just do something with the range that you define with your if statements directly. Every property of Cell or Range can be accessed directly.
Hope it helps.
Not sure how you can achieve you "flying select box" problem, but at least you could add this code, so opening/closing groups are available on protected sheets:
'Password Protect Current Sheet
ActiveSheet.Protect Password:="Add_here_your_password", UserInterfaceOnly:=True
'Enable Group Collapse/Expand Capabilities
ActiveSheet.EnableOutlining = True
How about trying to remove the "back to A1" as much as possible?
Maybe do it only on absolutely necessary, or move back to the changed value (the 33 in your example), or to the question title (in your multi-option example)

Do not ignore excel hidden field VBA

I am trying to use one of the excel hidden field for the purpose of referencing. Basically column(A:A) is hidden and it contains specific IDs that I can use it to reference it to another sheet.
I could have moved the column (A:A) further away so that the user does not see it, but my issue is that I have written too many lines of code already. I guess it is poorly constructed, because if I were to move any of my columns, my entire program would definitely break. I could try to fix it, but that would mean I would have to over analyze my own code and I either wouldn't understand it or wouldn't find my mistake.
So, anyways, I have a Range.Find function, which is looking in the hidden field, but returns nothing. I could try to unhide it, and hide it again, but I want to know that if there is a solution in Excel, then to not ignore the hidden field.
Set myCell = Columns(1).Find("search_string", lookat:=xlWhole, LookIn:=xlFormulas)
Debug.Print myCell.Row
Replace "search_string" to the ID you are looking for.

How to select all names in Excel with VBA

I am working with a large Excel file, where I have defined around 2000 names for cells. In addition the excel contains formulas, these formulas are already entered with references to cells (A23-B24). I want to change the cells references by the defined names (instead of A23-B24 having VARIABLE_100-VARIABLE_120).
I know this is possible by selecting "Apply names" and then select the defined names from the list. Because I have around 2000 defined names, I would like to select all the names at once from the menu, but I cannot find an option, so I have to select one by one. I have been looking if there was an option for enabling the multiple selection on the menu, but I have not found such an option.
A work around for me would be to create a macro that applies to the selected range of formulas the selected names. Something like this:
Sub Macro1()
' Macro1 Macro
Selection.ApplyNames Names:=Array ("ATL_BV_XP", "ATL_BV_XP..EUN", "ATL_PK_XP", _
"ATL_PK_XP..EUN", "CHN_PK_IM", "CHN_PK_IM..EUN", "CHN_PK_IM..SHREUN", _
"E15_AG_AH", "E15_AG_EPA", "E15_AG_SFP", "E15_AG_SFP..CF" _
, "E15_APF_FE"), IgnoreRelativeAbsolute:=True, UseRowColumnNames:=True, _
OmitColumn:=True, OmitRow:=True, Order:=1, AppendLast:=False
End Sub
My problem is that because I have a large number of defined names (already wrote like twice that around 2000), listing all names in the macro code becomes really complex. I thought that probably a workaround would be to create a list including all defined names within the code. Does someone has an idea how to do this? I have looking around and some codes suggest a loop while other say it is possible to extract a list. Nonetheless I have not been able to find a way to do it.
The documentation at msdn.microsoft.com says
Names: An array of the names to be applied. If this argument is omitted, all names on the sheet are applied to the range.
see https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff196578(v=office.15).aspx
Following on that try this:
Selection.ApplyNames _
IgnoreRelativeAbsolute:=True, UseRowColumnNames:=True, _
OmitColumn:=True, OmitRow:=True, Order:=1, AppendLast:=False
This should work depending on the Scope of the Defined Names and their visibility. Try that and let us know the results.
It may already be available to you. Say we have defined the Names Cost, Profit, Tax
When typing a formula, have the Formula Tab open and you can always pull-down those names:
A macro would be nice, but I don't know how to invoke a macro in the middle of editing.

Dynamically Populate Listbox - Exclude Empty cells

I am creating a form in excel (not a userform) and I am populating the listbox using cells. However, these cells are sometimes A1:10 and sometimes they are A1:A4. Is there a way to dynamically change what is shown in the listbox?
Right now, when I use A1:10 and there are only 4 cells populated, I get the list of 4 populated cells followed by 6 blank entries. I'd like to get rid of the 6 blanks when there are only 4.
Unfortunately, this is more of a workaround than a solution. However, it may be able to do what you need it to do. I've been hitting the same wall you are with trying to make ranges dynamic.
Without seeing some code to know exactly what you're doing, try something like this.
Private Sub ListBox1()
x = 1
'Add items to listbox until you reach an empty cell.
Do while Cells(x,1) <> ""
ListBox1.AddItem Cells(x,1)
Loop
I'm not very familiar with listboxes outside of userforms but this should do approximately what you want to do.
Edit your original post with your code so we can try and get a better understanding of what you've tried and what you're trying to do.
You can create a named range using a dynamic formula. Either of the below formulas will work.
=A1:INDEX($A$1:$A$10,MATCH("",$A$1:$A$10,0)-1)
=OFFSET($J$7,0,0,MATCH("",$J$7:$J$32,0)-1)
To create the named range, click ctrl+F3 then click new, insert one of the two options above into the "refers to:" section, then label the new range whatever you would like. in the "row source" section of the listbox simply type in the name you selected for your new named range.

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