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Understanding User Defined And Constants Types In Excel VBA

David Halbertson — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:08:03 +0000

There will be times within your Excel VBA code where you want to lock down the value of a variable but make it a variable nevertheless. For example, if your application makes reference to a tax rate, having the rate in a variable will offer you a mechanism for changing the rate wherever you have used it in your application. Thus, instead of entering code like “TaxAmount = SubTototal * 0.15″, you would use statements like “TaxAmount = SubTototal * TaxRate”, where tax rate would be a constant.

Constants have to be declared and initialised in one statement: for example “Const TaxRate as Currency = 0.15″. This is the only time that a value can be placed in the constant and herein lies one of its key benefits; the value it contains cannot later be accidentally overwritten because the programmer confuses this variable with another. The other key benefit is the ease with which constants allow us to update our applications. Thus, in the tax rate example, when the tax rate changes, we only need to modify one line of code and that change will update our entire application.

Another variable technique which allows us to “tighten up” the values which may be entered into a variable is to use User Defined Types (UDTs) which, essentially, allow you to define your own variable types. You can then declare as many variables of this given type as you need. Type definitions must be placed at the top of a module; they cannot be placed inside sub routines or functions. The definition consists of a code block inside which the various elements of the type are detailed as well as the data type associated with it. Here is an example of a type definition.

Type Employee

Name As String

Department As String

JobTitle As String

DateOfBirth As Date

StartDate As Date

Salary As Long

End Type

To use your UDT in our code, we use statements like the following:

Dim empNew As Employee

With empNew

.Name = “Gillian Spencer”

.Department = “Information Technology”

.JobTitle = “Web Developer”

.DateOfBirth = 12/05/1982

.StartDate = 25/03/2010

.Salary = 27500

End With

UDTs provide a very useful way of storing related variables in one place. In this regard, they resemble arrays; but, unlike arrays, the elements they contain are named rather than simply referred to by a numerical index.

You can get up to date information on Excel VBA training courses, visit Macresource Computer Training, an independent computer training company offering Excel VBA Classes in London and throughout the UK.

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Microsoft Excel Training Tailored To Your Business Needs

Bertie Howard — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:39:10 +0000

Microsoft Excel 2007 has many differences from Excel 2003. Therefore, when you or your staff upgrade, you will almost certainly need training. But what kind of training will work best? Do you need an upgrade course that shows you the new features? Do you need a training course that compares Excel 2003 and 2007 and shows you how features have changed and evolved in the new version? Or do you need Excel training to take your skills to a new level, whatever the version?… Well, why not find a course that does all of the above?

One of the first things you should look for in having training on Excel 2007 is a full explanation of how the new interface works. You should be shown the new way of working and learn useful tips and shortcuts which will enable you to become at least as productive in Excel 2007 as you were in 2003.

In addition to this, however, you will want to learn the new features that Excel 2007 has to offer: the stuff that either wasn’t available in previous versions or which has undergone considerable enhancement.

One fundamental new feature in Excel 2007 is the dimension of a worksheet which is now about 1000 times bigger (in terms of the number of cells) than previous versions. A good Excel 2007 training course should show you how to fully exploit the space available and how to quickly navigate and manage the larger worksheets that will result.

Pivot tables are a key area where Excel 2007 has made improvements. Ensure that any Excel 2007 training that you book includes first of all an explanation of pivot table essentials (pivot tables often confuse users) and then moves on to the new ways of creating and manipulating pivot tables offered in Excel 2007.

Do you or your organisation use charts and graphics when creating Excel reports? If so, be sure that your Excel 2007 training covers the new and improved charting engine within this new version. You should learn how to fully exploit the new chart ribbons: format, layout and design. You should come away from the training knowing all about SmartArt graphics, adding trendlines, scatter charts and pivot charts.

Conditional formatting has been around in Excel for some time. However, this feature has now been considerably improved. If you are getting trained on Excel 2007, you should definitely make sure that you will learn about these improvements and how to use the Color Scale and Data Bars features.

Formulas are the lifeblood of Excel. They analyse the raw data entered in other cells and provide most of Excel’s awesome power. You should definitely request that your Excel 2007 training shows you the improvements that have been made to the entry of formulas in the formula bar and the key new functions that have been introduced, especially AverageIf, SumIfs, and IfError

You can find out more about Excel VBA training courses, visit Macresource Computer Training, a UK IT training company offering Excel VBA Classes in London and throughout the UK.

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Microsoft Excel Text Alignment Options Are More Flexible Than You Might Think

Ben Phillips — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:28:03 +0000

The alignment section of the Home Tab of the Excel ribbon contains a number of options relating to the way in which your data is position within the cell. Perhaps the most familiar and the most frequently used buttons in this section are the three relating to the horizontal position your data: left, centre and right. However you’ll notice that when you click in the cells of an unformatted worksheet, none of these three icons is highlighted, which indicates that none of them is the default. The reason for this is that Excel treats data differently depending on the data type.

If you type text in a cell, your text is aligned on the left; if you type a number, the number is aligned on the right; if you type a date, it is also aligned on the right. To change the horizontal alignment, either select a range of cells or click on a column letter to highlight the entire column then click on one of the alignment icons.

Haven chosen one type of horizontal alignment, you can change it in two ways. You can either click on a different form of alignment or click again on the already selected alignment. For example, if your text is centred and you click on the Centre button a second time, this deactivates centre alignment and returns you to the default alignment which, for text, is left. Thus we have, effectively, four types of horizontal alignment: left, centre, right and unspecified (or default), which is the alignment that applies when none of the alignment buttons is highlighted.

Excel also allows you to specify vertical alignment. This setting normally only becomes apparent when you increase the height of the cell and this time there is a definite default which is that text is aligned at the bottom of the cell. This setting applies to text, dates and numbers alike.

To set the vertical alignment, either make a selection or click on the row number to select the entire row then click on one of the buttons to make the change: align middle, align top and so forth.

Excel also features the ability to change the orientation of text within the cell. This is particularly useful in those situations where your column headings are wider than the data in the cells. To change the vertical orientation of your text, just select the cells in question and then choose the appropriate angle in the Alignment dialogue.

If you rotate your column headings by 90 degrees, you can usually make the columns much narrower. Excel has a very useful way of doing this: simply select all the columns that contain data then in the Cell group of the Home Tab of the Excel Ribbon, choose Format then AutoFit Columns. This command makes each of the highlighted columns no wider than it needs to be in order to display all the data it contains.

If you would like to learn more about Excel VBA training courses, visit Macresource Computer Training, an independent computer training company offering Excel VBA training courses in London and throughout the UK.

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Creating And Using Custom Lists In Microsoft Excel

William Fellows — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 13:28:57 +0000

Excel’s AutoFill feature relies on the program’s ability to recognize patterns in the data that you enter. For example, if you type “Week 1″ in a cell, you can have the program automatically fill in “Week 2″, “Week 3″, etc. by using the AutoFill handle. This is located in the bottom right of the cell. As the cursor moves over it, the cursor changes appearance to a plus sign (+). When it does so you simply click, hold, drag in any direction and Excel will pick up the pattern and extrapolate it to create automatic data entries.

Each time you use the AutoFill handle Excel displays the AutoFill Options drop down menu just below the last cell which has been automatically created. If the program has not entered the data you wanted it to, just choose one of the entries in the AutoFill Options to tell it what you wanted it to do. For example, if you choose Copy Cells, Excel will generate an exact copy of what was in the original cell.

Excel is also capable of automatically entering an arbitrary series of data using a feature called Custom Lists. There are certain lists built into Excel, for example, the months of the year. To use the AutoFill feature, you need to enter the first value in the list, for example, “January” or “Jan”. Next, you drag the AutoFill handle (located in the bottom right of the cell) in any direction to have Excel automatically enter the rest of the custom list.

In addition to Excel’s built-in lists, you can also create your own custom lists. For example, let’s say we work for a company that has branches in several towns. We would almost certainly need to list these towns quite frequently in our spreadsheets. We could save ourselves a fair amount of time by setting up the towns as a custom list.

To do this, simply select cells in one of your worksheets that contain the information. Next, click on the Office button and choose Excel options. Click on “Edit Custom Lists” in the “Popular” category. Excel displays the contents of the cells that we highlighted. To convert the selected data into a custom list, we simply click on the “Import” button.

Once you’ve created a custom list, it can be used in any of your worksheets, not just the sheet that contained the original information. To generate the entries in the list, simply type the first value. Next, drag the AutoFill handle to conjure up the remaining entries. When using this facility, we can drag in any direction and we don’t have to start with the first member of the custom list.

Custom lists can also be entered directly in the “Custom Lists” dialog box. To do this, click on the “List Entries” button and type the list separating entries with a carriage return. After entering the list, click on the Add button to make it permanent.

To delete an unwanted custom list, just click on it and press the “Delete” button. Excel checks that you want to delete the list and when you click “OK”, the custom list is removed.

If you would like to learn more about Excel VBA training courses, visit Macresource Computer Training, a UK IT training company offering Excel VBA Classes at their central London training centre.

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Standalone Versus Embedded Microsoft Excel Charts

Peter Earlham — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 14:24:53 +0000

To create any chart in Microsoft Excel, you must begin by selecting the data that you want to plot including any headings. You then have the choice of creating either a stand-alone chart or an embedded chart. To create a stand-alone chart, right-click on one of your worksheet tabs and choose Insert. Next, click on the chart icon and click OK. Excel creates a chart using the default chart type.

Having just created a chart, you will notice that Excel displays three contextual tabs headed “Chart Tools”. The contextual tabs consist of Design, Layout and Format. The Design contextual tab enables you to change the chart type and the basic information about the chart such as the underlying data.

The Layout tab offers you a more intricate level of control over the various components of your chart. For example, by default, Excel adds a legend to each new chart. If a chart has only one series of data, we don’t need a legend to tell us what the chart colours mean. We can therefore click on the Legend drop-down menu and choose None.

The Format contextual tab gives us the most primitive control over the chart elements. It is here that we are able to click on individual elements and change them at the object level. In other words, we are working on these elements purely as drawing objects rather than as elements of the chart. However, even at this primitive level, Excel still shows us the relationship between the chart elements and the underlying data. Thus, for example, when an individual data point is highlighted, Excel displays the corresponding worksheet address in the formula bar.

When creating a standalone chart, you are not given the option of choosing the chart type during the chart creation process. If you want to change the chart type, you have to do so at a later stage by choosing a Chart Type option in the Design contextual menu.

As regards the chart sheet which contains the chart, it behaves in much the same way as Excel worksheets. For example, it can be renamed or deleted by right-clicking the sheet tab and choosing Rename or Delete from the context menu.

If you would like to learn more about Excel and Excel VBA training courses, visit On Site Training Courses . Com, a UK IT training web site offering Excel Classes all over the UK.

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Aspects Of An Effective Microsoft Excel 2007 Training Course

David Halbertson — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 15:34:24 +0000

Upgrading to Excel 2007 may be something of a shock to you and your staff. The initial reaction of most people is: “where is everything?” Bearing this in mind, you may well find that a training course on Excel 2007 is a good investment. The training should first of all get you past the initial state of confusion caused by the fact that 2007 looks so different from previous versions. Then it should give you some guidance on the new features in Excel 2007 such as the enhancements to charting and graphics, functions and conditional formatting.

At the end of any training on Excel 2007, you should feel that you have grasped the logic of the new interface and be able to navigate the ribbon and find all the basic commands. You should be getting used to doing things the Office 2007 way rather than the Office 2003 way.

Pivot tables have been considerably improved in Excel 2007. However, given that so many users are a bit vague on getting the best out of pivot tables, why not ask that your training on pivot tables begins with a review of fundamental pivot table concepts before moving on to look at how Excel 2007 implements pivot table features.

Charts and graphics are a great way to add impact to your Excel reports. Does your organisation use them? If so, make sure that your Excel 2007 training course incorporates gives you plenty of practice examples in using Excel 2007’s new features to create and manipulate charts and graphics. You should become a dab hand at using the new charting ribbons: the format ribbon, the design ribbon and the layout ribbon. Do you need advanced features too? If so, you should also be looking to learn about pivot charts, scatter charts and adding trendlines to your charts.

An Excel spreadsheet without formulas and functions is not much use to anyone. Functions are what Excel is all about. Microsoft have improved the way in which function are entered and edited and added several new functions. When you book training on Excel 2007, make sure that your course will include coverage of new functions like SumIfs, IfError and AverageIf as well as a demonstration of the improvements to the editing of formulas.

You can find out more about Excel and Excel VBA training courses, visit On Site Training Courses . Com, a UK IT training web site offering On-site Excel training all over the UK.

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Microsoft Excel Training In Its Many Forms

Dave Harris — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:17:09 +0000

We all have been around computers and some of us use them on a daily basis but we all have to admit that we don’t use all of the programs chances are we don’t even know all of the programs on the computer itself. By taking time to go through Microsoft Excel Training you will have more knowledge of what your program and computer can do for you?

Computers are full of programs that some of us don’t even know about because it just isn’t an everyday program that we use. With Microsoft Excel Training you can now learn these programs and how to use them for what they are worth.

Microsoft Excel is one of those programs that you don’t use on a daily basis unless you have a company or business. Many things can be done with Microsoft Excel such as spreadsheets, charts and more. The program can be fun, exciting and do anything that you want to do with a matter of a few simple steps.

Microsoft Excel training can be very useful and can teach you many things such as what buttons perform which functions and how to use them effectively and to your best ability.

There are many ways to get Microsoft Excel training such as private instructors, videos, classes and more. Most computer programs offer a step by step tutorial that shows you simply and briefly how the program works and how to install it but the features and functions that it shows you are limited. In order to use a program effectively you need to know all the features not just a few.

Private tutors can cost a lot of money but if you really need the help to understand the program then it is worth it and you can get the attention that you need so if you don’t understand a specific thing or function then you can ask and get one on one attention.

There are a variety of online products ranging from videos, online classes and DVD’s if you don’t have much time to go somewhere and need something more catered to your bust life then chances are an online program is the right one for your situation.

There are many advantages and disadvantages to training in Excel such as learning the program, cost and more it is up to you as the consumer to decide which program best suits your needs.

You can find out more about Excel and Excel VBA training courses, visit On Site Training Courses . Com, an independent computer training web site offering Excel training courses all over the UK.

Using Hidden Worksheets In Microsoft Excel 2007

Mark Anderson — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:16:13 +0000

A Microsoft Excel workbook is really a container, a bit like a folder. Each Excel workbook contains one or more worksheets and it is the worksheet that is the actual container of your information. Worksheets are identified by a tab which carries the name of the sheet. Clicking a tab will activate that particular sheet.

In exactly the same way that Microsoft Excel allows you to hide columns, it is also possible to hide entire worksheets. Hiding a worksheet is particularly useful where you have a workbook that contains a lot of sheets. Naturally, hidden worksheets can be made visible again by using the Unhide command. It is possible to hide either an individual sheet or to hide a group of sheets. However sheets can only be unhidden one sheet at a time.

To hide a single sheet, just right-click on the sheet tab and choose Hide. The corresponding worksheet will then vanish. There is also a ribbon command which achieves the same thing. First, select the sheet by clicking on its tab and then, in the Cells section of the Home Tab of Excel Ribbon, choose Format-Visibility-Hide and Unhide-Hide.

To hide more than one sheet at a time, simply select the sheets by clicking on the first, holding down the Control key on your keyboard and clicking on each of the others. Next, right-click on any of the highlighted sheet tabs and choose Hide.

To make a hidden worksheet visible once more, you can right-click on any sheet tab and choose Unhide. The Unhide dialog will then appear. Unfortunately, it is not possible to select more than one sheet to unhide; if you try Control-click or Shift-click, you’ll soon find that only one sheet can be highlighted. Highlight the name of the sheet that you wish to make visible and click OK.

If you prefer, you can also use the Excel Ribbon command Format-Visibility-Hide and Unhide-UnHide Sheet. When the Unhide dialog box appears, highlight the sheet you would like to unhide and click OK. You will notice that when sheets are unhidden they very conveniently return to the position that they originally occupied.

If you would like to learn more about Excel training courses, visit Macresource Computer Training, an independent computer training company offering Excel training courses in London and throughout the UK.

Understanding Number Formats In Microsoft Excel 2007

Malcolm Henderson — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 15:42:33 +0000

When entering numbers into a spreadsheet, you sometimes need to ensure that the number format is consistent. For example, if the numbers in question represent prices, you may want to display a currency symbol or you may simply want to make sure that the number of decimals displayed is consistent..

Unless you specify otherwise, all numbers in Excel are rendered in the “General” format. This means that numbers are displayed exactly as you enter them: if you enter two decimals, two decimals are displayed; if you went to one decimal, one decimal is displayed; and so on.

When setting the number format, the best idea is usually to highlight the whole column. To do this, click on the letter or letters at the top of the column. (Any text contained in the highlighted column will not be affected by the number format you specify.)

Number formats are displayed in the “Numbers” section of the Home Tab of the Ribbon. There are three main formats related to numbers: the first is called “Number”, the second “Currency” and the third “Accounting”. To gain access to the full range of number formats, choose “More Number Formats” from the drop-down menu. Another way of accessing the same dialog box is to click on the launch button in the “Numbers” section of the Home Tab.

Clicking on any of the number formats on the left, displays a series of choices which enable you to refine the way that the format will work. For example, if you have numbers referring to an hourly rate, you might click the “Number” category in the left column and then specify two decimal places. The option which reads “Use Thousands Separator” is used to insert the appropriate separator to demarcate thousands. The separator used will depend on your locality: for example, in most European countries a dot will be used; in the UK or USA, a comma will be used.

The last option in the “Number” category controls the display of negative numbers. The default setting is to display a minus sign in front of the number and leave the colour of the text unchanged. However, you can also choose not to display the minus sign and change the colour of negative numbers to red. Alternatively, you can change the colour of negative numbers to red and also display the minus sign.

When we click the “Currency” category, we have pretty much the same choices with the addition of the currency symbol. We can specify which currency symbol is used or we can dispense with the symbol altogether.

The “Accounting” number format is almost identical to “Currency”. Here again, we can choose our currency symbol. However, there are no choices relating to negative numbers. This is because the convention in accountancy is to put negative numbers in brackets.

In addition to using the number dialog box, you’ll notice that there are a series of handy buttons which can apply each of the appropriate formats with one click. There are also two buttons for increasing and decreasing the number of decimals displayed in the selected numbers.

Finally, there may be times where you enter a number into a cell but do not want Excel to treat it as a number. For example, if you have a column of data representing an ID, although the ID may be numeric, you may not want Excel to regard it as a number or to modify it in any way. You will probably want it to simply stay exactly as it was entered. Whenever that’s the case, it’s best to format the number as “Text”. The simplest way of doing this is to highlight the appropriate column and in the number dialog box choose “Text” as the category.

To learn more about Excel and Excel VBA training courses, visit On Site Training Courses . Com, an independent computer training web site offering Excel Classes all over the UK.

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Sourcing The Best In Microsoft Excel 2007 Training Courses

Luke Rose — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:12:17 +0000

Having taken the plunge and upgraded to Excel 2007, you will almost certainly benefit from some training. Which type of training you choose depends on your existing experience in using the program. However, in general, the ideal course will first of all rid you of the disorientation most Excel users feel when faced with the Excel 2007 interface. In addition, your Excel 2007 training course should show you how to make the most of the new features version 2007 has to offer.

However, after being trained on 2007, you will want to do more than just get back to where you were with 2003. You will want the training to show you what new features have been added to Excel 2007 and how these new features can benefit you.

You can find out more about Excel VBA training courses, visit Macresource Computer Training, a UK IT training company offering Excel VBA Classes at their central London training centre.

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