Page 257 - Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Programming Inside Out

Formatting Excel Objects

Figure 10-1 shows two worksheets with sheet tabs that were changed using the
Worksheet_Change event procedure. The worksheet on the left is active, so Excel displays
a line of the tab’s color below the worksheet name, but notice that Excel displays the
worksheet’s name in black type on a white background so that the name can be read easily.
The inactive sheet to the right displays the tab with a full blue background and black text,
indicating it was also changed.

Chapter 10
Figure 10-1. The active sheet’s name is displayed with a view to readability, whereas
inactive sheet tabs let the tab’s color take precedence.

Important You need to be sure to put the code for a worksheet event, such as
Worksheet_Change, in the code module associated with the worksheet you want to monitor.

Formatting Fonts

When you program Excel using VBA, it can be easy to forget that the most important part of
your worksheet is the data. The easier your data is to understand, the more effective your pre­
sentation will be. Figure 10-2 on page 234 offers a somewhat extreme example of the differ­
ence between a well-formatted worksheet and a worksheet with no distinction between
headings and data.
Most Excel users learn how to use the controls on the Formatting toolbar and in the Format
Cells dialog box very early in their Excel careers. In a similar vein, you should make the Font
object part of your basic VBA repertoire. Table 10-6 lists and describes the properties of the
Font object.

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Part 4: Advanced VBA