Using Macros to Automate Functions in Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is one of the most useful productivity applications today. It has very powerful features where business owners, professionals and students can compute numeric values with just a push of a button, tabulate some of the data that you need for your weekly report, organize numeric values and many others. Aside from the mere fact that it has a very easy to use interface, more functionalities are now being added ensuring that Excel users will have an easier experience with the said tool. Aside from adding formulas and arithmetic functionalities on these spreadsheets, you can additionally use macros to save more time and effort altogether.
With macros, you can automate most of the things that you do in Microsoft Excel. For instance, if you’ve been doing the same format for multiple spreadsheets, you can always change the format by using shortcut keys. This saves you a lot of time and you don’t have to go through the manual process of changing the format for every spreadsheet that you create. So for instance, if you execute the same arrangement with regard to the cell formatting in most of your spreadsheets, macros can help you do the exact same formatting without doing it all over again.
Recording macros is done easily. They are quite simple to create. Highlighting the cells with the formatting and arithmetic functions that you prefer enables you to record a macro. Moreover, you can also play these codes back whenever needed. You can control these macros by assigning shortcut keys and buttons of your preference. For instance, you can use Ctrl + P to perform a saved macro which gives you the formulas and formatting options of your last month’s report. This gives you more chances of working on your report rather than taking too much time re-formatting and editing the cells once more.
Macros aren’t tough to understand. In fact, there are different tutorials and some great videos found online. Most often, you can also find pictures and easy to follow instructional guide to help you further understand what macros are, how they are recorded, played back and implemented. Most of these tutorials are quite simple – and as you go along, you’d find out that you would be able to make the most out of Microsoft Excel through macros. You don’t have to be a computer geek to understand its implementation and application. Moreover, there is no need to learn advanced programming codes. Most of the codes included in creating and recording macros are easy to understand and even if you do not have a background of Visual Basic, you can still compose macros and make use of them every single time you’re creating a new spreadsheet.
Automating tasks and formatting cells are easy and fast. Through macros, you can cut the time you are spending on these spreadsheets by half. This only means that you are making your time more productive, and at the same time, you’re making life and your tasks easier as well.
