- The Power of Excel
- Barriers to Entry
- Knowing Your Tools: The Developer Tab
- Macro Security
- Overview of Recording, Storing, and Running a Macro
- Running a Macro
- Using New File Types in Excel 2010
- Understanding the VB Editor
- Understanding Shortcomings of the Macro Recorder
- Next Steps
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Understanding Shortcomings of the Macro Recorder
Suppose you work in an accounting department. Each day you receive a text file from the company system showing all the invoices produced the prior day. This text file has commas separating each field. The columns in the file are InvoiceDate, InvoiceNumber, SalesRepNumber, CustomerNumber, ProductRevenue, ServiceRevenue, and ProductCost (see Figure 1.9).
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Figure 1.9 Invoice.txt file.
Each morning, you manually import this file into Excel. You add a total row to the data, bold the headings, and then print the report for distribution to a few managers.
This seems like a simple process that would be ideally suited to using the macro recorder. However, due to some problems with the macro recorder, your first few attempts might not be successful. The following case study explains how to overcome these problems.
Case Study: Preparing to Record the Macro
The task mentioned in the previous section is perfect for a macro. However, before you record a macro, think about the steps you will use. In this case, the steps you will use are as follows:
- Click the File menu and select Open.
- Navigate to the folder where Invoice.txt is stored.
- Select All Files(*.*) from the Files of Type drop-down list.
- Select Invoice.txt.
- Click Open.
- In the Text Import Wizard—Step 1 of 3, select Delimited from the Original Data Type section.
- Click Next.
- In the Text Import Wizard—Step 2 of 3, clear the Tab key and select Comma in the Delimiters section.
- Click Next.
- In the Text Import Wizard—Step 3 of 3, select General in the Column Data Format section and change it to Date: MDY.
- Click Finish to import the file.
- Press the End key followed by the down arrow to move to the last row of data.
- Press the down arrow one more time to move to the total row.
- Type the word Total .
- Press the right-arrow key four times to move to Column E of the total row.
- Click the Autosum button and press Ctrl+Enter to add a total to the Product Revenue column while remaining in that cell.
- Click the AutoFill handle and drag it from Column E to Column G to copy the total formula to Columns F and G.
- Highlight Row 1 and click the Bold icon on the Home tab to set the headings in bold.
- Highlight the Total row and click the Bold icon on the Home tab to set the totals in bold.
- Press Ctrl+A to select all cells.
- From the Home tab, select Format, AutoFit Column Width.
After you have rehearsed these steps in your head, you are ready to record your first macro. Open a blank workbook and save it with a name such as MacroToImportInvoices.xlsm. Click the Record Macro button on the Developer tab.
In the Record Macro dialog, the default macro name is Macro1. Change this to something descriptive like ImportInvoice. Make sure that the macros will be stored in This Workbook. You might want an easy way to run this macro later, so enter the letter i in the Shortcut Key field. In the Description field, add a little descriptive text to tell what the macro is doing (see Figure 1.10). Click OK when you are ready.
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Figure 1.10 Before recording your macro, complete the Record Macro dialog box.
Recording the Macro
The macro recorder is now recording your every move, but don't be nervous. For this reason, perform your steps in exact order without extraneous actions. If you accidentally move to Column F, type a value, clear the value, and then move back to E to enter the first total, the recorded macro blindly makes that same mistake day after day after day. Recorded macros move fast, but there is nothing like watching the macro recorder play out your mistakes repeatedly.
Carefully, execute all the actions necessary to produce the report. After you have performed the final step, click the Stop button in the lower-left corner of the Excel window or click Stop Recording in the Developer tab.
Now it is time to look at your code. Switch to the VB Editor by selecting Visual Basic from the Developer tab or pressing Alt+F11.
Examining Code in the Programming Window
Let's look at the code you just recorded from the case study. Don't worry if it doesn't make sense yet.
To open the VB Editor, press Alt+F11. In your VBA Project (MacroToImportInvoices.xls), find the component Module1, right-click the module, and select View Code. Notice that some lines start with an apostrophe—these are comments and are ignored by the program. The macro recorder starts your macros with a few comments, using the description you entered in the Record Macro dialog. The comment for the Keyboard Shortcut is there to remind you of the shortcut.
Recorded macro code is usually pretty neat (see Figure 1.11). Each noncomment line of code is indented four characters. If a line is longer than 100 characters, the recorder breaks it into multiple lines and indents the lines an additional four characters. To continue a line of code, type a space and an underscore at the end of the line.
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Figure 1.11 The recorded macro is neat looking and nicely indented.
Consider that the following seven lines of recorded code is actually only one line of code that has been broken into seven lines for readability:
Workbooks.OpenText Filename:= _
"C:\invoice.txt", Origin:=437, StartRow:=1, DataType:=xlDelimited, _
TextQualifier:=xlDoubleQuote, ConsecutiveDelimiter:=False, _
Tab:=True, Semicolon:=False, Comma:=True, Space:=False, _
Other:=False, FieldInfo:=Array(Array(1, 3), Array(2, 1), Array(3, 1), _
Array(4, 1), Array(5, 1), Array(6, 1), Array(7, 1)), _
TrailingMinusNumbers:=True
Counting this as one line, the macro recorder was able to record our 21-step process in 14 lines of code, which is pretty impressive.
Test Each Macro
It is always a good idea to test macros. To test your new macro, return to the regular Excel interface by pressing Alt+F11. Close Invoice.txt without saving any changes. MacroToImportInvoices.xls is still open.
Press Ctrl+I to run the recorded macro. It should work beautifully if you completed the steps correctly. The data is imported, totals are added, bold formatting is applied, and the columns are made wider. This seems like a perfect solution (see Figure 1.12).
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Figure 1.12 The macro formats the data in the sheet.
Running the Macro on Another Day Produces Undesired Results
After testing the macro, be sure to save your macro file to use on another day. The next day, after receiving a new Invoice.txt file from the system, you open the macro, press Ctrl+I to run it, and disaster strikes. The data for June 6 happened to have 9 invoices, while the data for the June 7 has 17 invoices. However, the recorded macro blindly added the totals in Row 12 because this was where you put the totals when the macro was recorded (see Figure 1.13).
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Figure 1.13 The intent of the recorded macro was to add a total at the end of the data, but the recorder made a macro that always adds totals at Row 11.
This problem arises because the macro recorder is recording all your actions in absolute mode by default. Instead of using the default state of the macro recorder, the next section discusses relative recording and how this might get you closer to a final solution.
Possible Solution: Use Relative References When Recording
By default, the macro recorder records all actions as absolute actions. If you navigate to Row 11 when you record the macro on Monday, the macro will always go to Row 11 when the macro is run. This is rarely appropriate when dealing with variable numbers of rows of data. The better option is to use relative references when recording.
Macros recorded with absolute references note the actual address of the cell pointer, such as A11. Macros recorded with relative references note that the cell pointer should move a certain number of rows and columns from its current position. For example, if the cell pointer starts in cell A1, the code ActiveCell.Offset(16, 1).Select would move the cell pointer to B17, which is the cell 16 rows down and 1 column to the right.
Let's try the same case study again, this time using relative references. The solution will be much closer to working correctly.
Case Study: Recording the Macro with Relative References
Let's try to record the macro again, but this time you will use relative references. Close Invoice.txt without saving changes. In the workbook MacroToImportInvoices.xls, record a new macro by selecting Record Macro from the Developer tab. Give the new macro a name of ImportInvoicesRelative and assign a different shortcut key such as Ctrl+Shift+J (see Figure 1.14).
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Figure 1.14 Getting ready to record a second try.
As you start to record the macro, go through the process of opening the Invoice.txt file. Before navigating to the last row of data by pressing the End key + then the down-arrow key, click the Use Relative Reference button on the Developer tab (refer to Figure 1.1).
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Continue through the actions in the script from the case study:
- Press the End key followed by the down-arrow key to move to the last row of data.
- Press the down arrow one more time to move to the total row.
- Type the word Total .
- Press the right-arrow key four times to move to Column E of the Total row.
- Click the Autosum button, and then press Ctrl+Enter to add a total to the Product Revenue column while remaining in that cell.
- Click the AutoFill handle and drag from Column E to Column G to copy the total formula to Columns F and G.
- Press Shift+spacebar to select the entire row. Type Ctrl+b to apply bold formatting to it. At this point, you need to move to Cell A1 to apply bold to the headings. You do not want the macro recorder to record the movement from Row 11 to Row 1 because it would record this as moving 10 rows up, which might not be correct tomorrow. Before moving to A1, toggle the Use Relative Recording button off, and then continue recording the rest of the macro.
- Highlight Row 1 and click the Bold icon to set the headings in bold.
- Press Ctrl+A to select all cells.
- From the Home tab, select Format, AutoFit Column Width.
- Select cell A1.
- Stop recording.
Press Alt+F11 to go to the VB Editor to review your code. The new macro appears in Module1 below the previous macro.
The following code has been edited with two comments that will help you remember where you turned the relative recording on and then off:
Sub ImportInvoicesRelative()
'
' ImportInvoicesRelative Macro
' Use relative references for some of the steps of the macro
' to format the invoice.txt file
'
Workbooks.OpenText Filename:= _
"C:\invoice.txt", Origin:=437, StartRow:=1, DataType:=xlDelimited, _
TextQualifier:=xlDoubleQuote, ConsecutiveDelimiter:=False, _
Tab:=True, Semicolon:=False, Comma:=True, Space:=False, _
Other:=False, FieldInfo:=Array(Array(1, 3), Array(2, 1), Array(3, 1), _
Array(4, 1), Array(5, 1), Array(6, 1), Array(7, 1)), _
TrailingMinusNumbers:=True
' Turned on relative recording here
Selection.End(xlDown).Select
ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Range("A1").Select
ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "'Total"
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 4).Range("A1").Select
Selection.FormulaR1C1 = "=SUM(R[-16]C:R[-1]C)"
Selection.AutoFill Destination:=ActiveCell.Range("A1:C1"), Type:= _
xlFillDefault
' Turned off relative recording here
ActiveCell.Range("A1:C1").Select
ActiveCell.Rows("1:1").EntireRow.Select
ActiveCell.Activate
Selection.Font.Bold = True
Rows("1:1").Select
Selection.Font.Bold = True
Cells.Select
Selection.Columns.AutoFit
Range("A1").Select
End Sub
To test the macro, close Invoice.txt without saving, and then run the macro with Ctrl+J. Everything should look good, and you should get the same results.
The next test is to see whether the program works on the next day when you might have more rows. Figure 1.15 shows the data for June 7.
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Figure 1.15 Will the macro with relative references work with this data?
Open MacroToImportInvoices.xls and run the new macro with Ctrl+J. This time, everything should look good with the totals in the correct places. Look at Figure 1.16—see anything out of the ordinary?
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Figure 1.16 The result of running the Relative macro.
If you aren't careful, you might print these reports for your manager. If you did, you would be in trouble. When you look in cell E19, Excel has inserted a green triangle to tell you to look at the cell. If you happened to try this back in Excel 95 or Excel 97 before SmartTags, there would not have been an indicator that anything was wrong.
When you move the cell pointer to E19, an alert indicator pops up near the cell. This indicator tells you the formula fails to include adjacent cells. If you look in the formula bar, you will see that the macro totaled only from Row 10 to Row 18. Neither the relative recording nor the nonrelative recording is smart enough to replicate the logic of the AutoSum button.
At this point, some people would give up. However, imagine that you might have had fewer invoice records on this particular day. Excel would have rewarded you with the illogical formula of =SUM(E6:E1048574) and a circular reference, as shown in Figure 1.17.
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Figure 1.17 The result of running the Relative macro with fewer invoice records.
If you have tried using the macro recorder, most likely you would run into similar problems as the ones produced in the last two case studies. Although this is frustrating, you should be happy to know that the macro recorder actually gets you 95 percent of the way to a useful macro.
Your job is to recognize where the macro recorder is likely to fail and then to be able to dive into the VBA code to fix the one or two lines that require adjusting to have a perfect macro. With some added human intelligence, you can produce awesome macros to speed up your daily work.
Never Use the AutoSum Button While Recording a Macro
There actually is a macro-recorder solution to the current problem. It is important to recognize that the macro recorder will never correctly record the intent of the AutoSum button.
If you are in cell E99 and click the AutoSum button, Excel starts scanning from cell E98 upward until it locates a text cell, a blank cell, or a formula. It then proposes a formula that sums everything between the current cell and the found cell.
However, the macro recorder records the particular result of that search on the day that the macro was recorded. Rather than record something along the lines of "do the normal AutoSum logic," the macro recorder inserts a single line of code to add up the previous 98 cells.
The somewhat bizarre workaround is to type a SUM function that uses a mix of relative and absolute row references. If you type =SUM(E$2:E10) while the macro recorder is running, Excel correctly adds code that will always sum from a fixed row two down to the relative reference that is just above the current cell.
Here is the resulting code with a few comments:
Sub FormatInvoice3()
'
' FormatInvoice2 Macro
' Third try. Use relative. Don't touch AutoSum
'
' Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+K
'
Workbooks.OpenText Filename:="C:\Users\Owner\Documents\invoice.txt", Origin _
:=437, StartRow:=1, DataType:=xlDelimited,
TextQualifier:=xlDoubleQuote _
, ConsecutiveDelimiter:=False, Tab:=False, Semicolon:=False, Comma:= _
True, Space:=False, Other:=False, FieldInfo:=Array(Array(1, 3), Array(2, 1), _
Array(3, 1), Array(4, 1), Array(5, 1), Array(6, 1), Array(7, 1)),
TrailingMinusNumbers _
:=True
' Relative turned on here
Selection.End(xlDown).Select
ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Range("A1").Select
ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "Total"
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 4).Range("A1").Select
' Don't use AutoSum. Type this formula:
Selection.FormulaR1C1 = "=SUM(R2C:R[-1]C)"
Selection.AutoFill Destination:=ActiveCell.Range("A1:C1"), Type:= _
xlFillDefault
ActiveCell.Range("A1:C1").Select
' Relative turned off here
ActiveCell.Rows("1:1").EntireRow.Select
ActiveCell.Activate
Selection.Font.Bold = True
Cells.Select
Selection.Columns.AutoFit
Range("A1").Select
End Sub
This third macro will consistently work with any size dataset.
To see a demo of recording this macro, search for Excel VBA 1 at YouTube.
Three Tips When Using the Macro Recorder
You will rarely be able to record 100 percent of your macros and have them work. However, you will get much closer by using these three tips demonstrated in the following subsections.
Tip 1: Use Relative References Setting Usually Needs to Be On
Microsoft should have made this setting be the default. Unless you specifically need to move to Row 1 from the bottom of a dataset, you should usually leave the Use Relative References button in the Developer tab turned on.
Tip 2: Use Special Navigation Keys to Move to Bottom of a Dataset
If you are at the top of a dataset and need to move to the last cell with data, you can press Ctrl+down arrow or press the End key and then the down-arrow key.
Similarly, to move to the last column in the current row of the dataset, press Ctrl+right arrow or press End and then press the right-arrow key.
By using these navigation keys, you can jump to the end of the dataset, no matter how many rows or columns you have today.
Tip 3: Never Touch the AutoSum Icon While Recording a Macro
The macro recorder will not record the "essence" of the AutoSum button. Instead, it will hard-code the formula that resulted from pressing the AutoSum button. This formula does not work any time you have more or fewer records in the dataset.
Instead, type a formula with a single dollar sign, such as =SUM(E$2:E10). When this is done, the macro recorder records the first E$2 as a fixed reference and starts the SUM range directly below the Row 1 headings. Provided the active cell is E11, the macro recorder recognizes E10 as a relative reference pointing directly above the current cell.