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Chapter 23

Using the Visual

Basic Editor

In This Chapter
Getting familiar with the Visual Basic Editor
Editing a macro in the Visual Basic Editor
Adding interactivity to a macro with a dialog box that processes user input
Creating and using user-defined functions in the Visual Basic Editor
Saving user-defined functions as Excel add-ins

isual Basic for Applications (usually known simply as VBA) is the official programming
Vlanguage of Excel that you can use to edit as well as to write new macros. The key to
editing and writing macros in Visual Basic for Applications is its editing program, the Visual
Basic Editor (often abbreviated VBE). The Visual Basic Editor offers a rich environment for
coding and debugging VBA code whose interface rivals that of Excel itself in terms of features
and complexity.

In this chapter, you get a chance to practice using the Visual Basic Editor to edit macros
that you’ve recorded (see Chapter 22) as well as to enhance their basic functionality
through the addition of interactivity. In addition, you get practice using the VBE to create
your own custom functions known as user-defined functions (often abbreviated UDF).

Using the Visual Basic Editor

You can open the Visual Basic Editor in one of two ways:

Choose the Tools➪Macro➪Visual Basic Editor menu command or do the equivalent by
pressing the shortcut key combination Alt+F11
Click the Visual Basic Editor button on the Visual Basic toolbar (displayed by choosing
View➪Toolbars➪Visual Basic — shown in Figure 23-1)