What Do You Know About MS Excel Macros Courses?

Microsoft Excel is a program using spreadsheets. The information that you can place into the spreadsheets are formatted in several different ways. You can perform functions such as adding, subtracting, combining different rows or columns and totaling them on a separate sheet if you wish. There are functions built into the Excel program and there are several tutorials available on the Microsoft web site.

If you just want to do simple processes using the Excel program, you can format each column or row to do the simple functions each time you need them. If you are someone that uses spreadsheets regularly, you may want to learn how to use macros. There are functions that you will be required to do repetitively. This can be time consuming and redundant. Macros are a way to simplify these repetitive tasks.

You program a macro with the series of functions you use, record them and give them a name. When you need to use that series of functions, you simply type in the name of the macro you created and it will automatically complete that series without your having to do them individually each time.

You begin by setting the security level of your macro. This is done by clicking on Tools >Options > Security> Macro Security> Security Level > set the security level to medium or low.

Next, go back to the Tools menu> Macro> Record a Macro> give your macro a name. The macro name must start with a letter. You may not use spaces in the name of your macro, but you can use characters and if you want to represent a space, you can use an underscore to represent the space.

The best way to call up a macro is by using a keyboard shortcut key. In the Shortcut key box, put in a letter, you cannot use a symbol of any type. When you want to call up the macro where you used a small letter, you hit ctrl + letter. If you used a capital letter, you call up the macro by hitting ctrl + shift + letter. As long as the workbook containing macro is open, the Excel shortcut is overridden and not usable.

To store the macro, in the Store macro in, you will choose the location. You can store it in the Personal Macro Workbook and it will be available anytime you open Excel. Macros are an easy way to simplify tasks that are redundant in MS Excel. There are many tutorials available on the Microsoft website and elsewhere on the Internet.

There is always a way to make your life easier. When it comes to macros for Excel, there is a book, downloadable for $24.95 from www.add-ins.com/office/macros_made_easy.htm. The book is equivalent to a 700+-page book that you can copy the macros from and paste into you spreadsheet. It does not get any easier than that. If your job requires the use of Excel with repetitive tasks, macros are the way to go.