I wrote a macro from scratch but would like to have non-technical people install/run it at ease. I'm unfortunately not onsite so I was hoping to defer the hassle to myself and offer them a one-(or few)-click solution. Any advice?
This Stack Overflow link seemed to be one of the better solutions, and this is still probably too complicated for my clients.
Well, for a one click solution, you are going to want to create an add-in and then an installer. This guide covers this pretty well in depth:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff937654.aspx#Create
If you don't want to do that, then the easiest way is to just copy/paste the macro (if it is not too complex) into each user's workbook or personal.xls if it needs to be used in multiple workbooks.
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I recently started writing VBA macros, even though I never learned VBA. So basically I am translating my python knowledge to VBA, which works most of the time.
However I want to improve my coding skills, especially when it comes to working with other people.
Usually I am writing a Macro and then install it on the computer of my colleagues, so that they can use it as well. But the way we develope the macro is currently a try-and-error approach, so I have to edit the code quite often. Currently I just copy paste the new lines into an Email and the person has to exchange that line by themselves.
My Question: How do professionals handle updating VBA Macros? Is there something like "patches"? Or can you have a shared "Personal.xlsb", so that all changes are automatically updated for everyone else as well? I am the only person editing the code anyway, the others just use it.
I googled a lot and also looked through stackoverflow, but only found this: How to write a patch to Excel VBA codes? where the answer basically was, that you can't write patches. But there surely must be a way, to update my macros in a better way, right?
Thanks in advance!
I was browsing the internet looking for possible solutions to my problem. For a job I have to extract data from an Excel worksheet in order to turn that data into something like a scheduling module. It's meant to give the customer insight into the progress his employees are making (most prominent).
Now since I couldn't find a specific answer and this post suggesting the only real way was using internet explorer, I was wondering if there are better and more modern ways to do this.
My framework of choice would be Laravel. I thought I'd mention it in case it matters for the possible solution or not. I am really scratching my head here because I cannot imagine that with today's technology we would still have to rely on Internet Explorer.
If anyone has tips, suggestions, anything that helps me: I would really appreciate it.
I have an excel sheet I've received from someone with information about their personal library recently, and they've asked me to add the library of congress number to every book on the sheet. There's thousands of books on this thing, and it would take forever to search the library of congress website and copy-paste everything on here. Is there a built-in function or a way to have a column search the website for each book and copy the appropriate number?
Err... No.
This specific functionality (searching the library of congress) is so specific, that it makes no sense for Microsoft to add it to Excel. There would be probably 3 people in total that would EVER use it.
A more generic functionality (take an arbitrary webpage and look for some arbitrary information in it) would on the other hand be too vague. Either it would be useless or it would need to have a bazillion parameters to get it to do what you need to. And you'd need to spend months trying to configure it just right.
Actually, Excel does kinda offer this generic functionality - it's called the VBA. You can write custom programs there that can do pretty much anything under the sun. The downside - it's programming. If you know what you're doing, you can probably get it done in a couple of days, maybe a week. If you don't know... good luck. You'll need it!
I have a friend that is working on a company without any real IT people, and they've gone the classical corporate route of stringing things together with Excel macros whenever they need something. I was trying to figure out what alternatives are available for someone that isn't a programmer by trade.
What is an easy alternative to Excel when you want to distribute data offline together with forms for manipulating it, that doesn't have a steep learning curve? I was going to suggest he learn Python and SQL-lite, but I'm hoping StackOverflow can come up with a wiser answer.
Honestly, for non developers (and if you do not have a dev staff in-house) there really isn't anything wrong with Excel.
That being said, Lightswitch is a new and fairly interesting option for basic forms over data work (although it's still a bit green).
IMO once you go down the route of languages like Python, etc. you're really looking at someone who is going to have to be a programmer (and they may be shooting themselves in the foot on a regular basis).
In that type of environment users end up with Excel or Access to manipulate data. Excel is convenient where cells in row are calculated the same way, but with exceptional cases. Access is better for calculating over multiple rows easily, data management forms (yes Excel can do it too, but Access is easier) and formatted reports.
The best situation I've arrived at in this type of environment is standing up read only "data warehouse" that Excel and Access users can link or download data from to manipulate on their own. For this situation SQL Server is probably the right choice and I use quotes around "data warehouse" because I don't mean it in the technical sense, but rather just a convenient repository. That way you have one definitive system of record. Then any report generated in either tool repeatedly becomes a candidate for incorporation into that warehouse.
I am doing a lot of similar tasks among some VBA scripts I am writing and would like to develop a library (a bunch of convenience functions using the typelib I'm working with) which I can call from all my various scripts. I am new to the VBA world and do not know how this is done and have had a surprisingly hard time trying to figure it out.
I think what I was looking for is an Add-In. Thanks everyone for your information.
Does this example help? It appears to also have a fix to a common issue when setting this up - You didn't mention which version of office - But 2003 is mentioned in that thread, so should be the fairly straight forward common case.
http://socko.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/vba-code-library/
Another option you have though it depends on the nature of your functions, is to create a COM object that you can call from your VBA scripts.
You can easily create a COM object using many languages including Delphi and VB (old style) it is also possible in .NET though a little more involved. You can then do your calculations in your COM object and even pass in the excel worksheet etc you wish to manipulate if required.
Depending on the nature of your functions this may or may not be useful.
You will need to use VB to do this. With Microsoft plug-ins to VB, you can manipulate Excel files without even opening them, much like you do now. The code will be very similar once you have the file open.
I would transfer all my code to VB and after its working like you have your VBA macros start making libraries out of the common stuff.
Lots of work, but if you really are doing a lot of this stuff, it will be great in the long run. (Job security too ;)
Check the comments here
http://www.dailydoseofexcel.com/archives/2004/10/15/code-libraries/