Topic: Visual Basic

[ren]

I'm thinking about learning Visual Basic since that's what macros in Excel are written in. From what I gather it's a pretty basic language that should be easy enough to self-learn. Does anyone have any suggestions for a starting point? Possibly some good websites or books worth looking into...

[scottws]

Oh no.  Are you going to be one of those users that make a database out of an Excel workbook?  I hate that.

I am actually interested in learning VB as well, but for scripting.  I already know regular Windows batch really well and PowerShell somewhat well, but would like to learn VB too.

[ren]

Definitely not. As much as I like to put everything into Excel I do realize the importance of using the right tool for the job.  What I would like to do is automate mindless excel tasks to cut hours work into minutes. I've had limited success googling macros and editing them for my own uses on a hunch but that's not a very efficient method and only takes you so far.

I just went through http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee814737.aspx#Y2757 and picked up some tricks and learned how to experiment with the macro recorder.

[ren]

Also I learned how to make message boxes with hilarious error messages which is a fun work distraction.

[Cools!]

Go for it! It's a pretty straightforward (and very verbose) language. Get that free editor that MS now offers (whatever Visual Studio is called now) and start playing around. It's very easy to create GUI apps with it, etc.

Look at all the documentation MS offers, look at tutorials online and maybe get a book at some point if you are still interested.