Excel Macros for the Non-Programmer

Even people who are experts at using Microsoft Excel don't often venture into the area of macros. Those that do are often satisfied with simple recorded macros and never look at the code that makes them work. "I'm an accountant not a programmer," is the common feeling.

Don't limit your Excel training. Excel VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), the language of macros, is a programming language that many non-programmers have embraced and become quite skilled at. Take a look at some of the features of this simple yet powerful language.

English-like syntax

When most people think of programming, they imagine lines like "Stack object [semi]attribute x18 flag set? Const x0119:x14". You won't see a statement like that in macro training. Excel VBA uses simple commands that are easy to read even if you don't know anything about programming. Consider the following example:

For each Employee in EmployeeList
Employee.Salary = Employee.Salary + 500
Next Employee

It doesn't take a computer science degree to guess that these statements give each employee a