How do I learn VBA - how did you learn?

[Mike Collard]

How do most people learn VBA? I have a couple of books
but have found them pretty hard going. Are there any good
on-line courses available - I'm a novice and need to ask
questions as I go so books are of limited value.

Grateful for any guidance.

Regards

 

[Ken Snell [MVP]]

I can speak only for me, but I learned VBA by starting to write macros in
EXCEL, for which the Help files are pretty good. I used books such as EXCEL
200x Bible, ACCESS 200x Bible, Beginning ACCESS 200x VBA, etc.

However, the best way I learned VBA was to just "do" it. I would know what I
wanted to achieve, I'd do digging in books to find out ideas, then I'd try
them... and I'd use these newsgroups (Google.com is good for searching older
posts) to get more ideas, ask questions, etc.

 

[Chris Nebinger]

I'm a book person.

I had a couple BASIC classes in High School, many years
ago. When I started Access, I knew general concepts, but
not Objects at all. I bought a book, plowed through the
Access help files, visited this newsgroup, made mistakes,
learned, and kept going.

You could take a course at a local college, maybe a tech
course, and then ask away here.

Good Luck!!

Chris Nebinger

 

[George Nicholson]

I taught myself VBA starting with Excel 95. I worked through Microsoft
Press "Programming Excel Step-by-step" as a starting point to get my feet
wet. One year later, my first professional gig as an Excel programmer
involved using Excel as a front end to an Access db so I tracked down the
"Step-by-Step" book for Access.

By the time you finish working through any kind of book like that (which
aren't very long) you will know enough to know where you want to go next.
They are dust catchers once you are finished (i.e., pretty lousy as
reference books), but if they serve their purpose, so what?

Start with small steps, but start. Don't try and do it all at once.

 

[Larry Linson]

How do most people learn VBA? I have a couple of books
but have found them pretty hard going. Are there any good
on-line courses available - I'm a novice and need to ask
questions as I go so books are of limited value.

I learned assembler language programming in a classroom, long ago and far
away, but not in a distant galaxy.

I learned Basic standing at the counter of a Radio Shack store when the
TRS-80 Model 1 was introduced, circa 1977-78. Every IBM-compatible PC
included some variation of BASIC through DOS 6, so it was handy to use and I
kept in practice. When VB was introduced, I got a book. When Access was
introduced, Access Basic was almost the same, so it wasn't much of a
transition. I got some other books, hung around newsgroups, and used the
Help.

So, I first learned the "basics of programming", then I learned BASIC, then
I "transitioned" to Visual Basic and Visual Basic for Applications. My
experience is not likely to be helpful to you.

The "big deal" about VBA is not so much VBA itself -- there are a number of
self-study books that teach that. It is learning the "object model" of the
software you'll be using, because much of what we do in VBA is, by
manipulating the software's object model, to automate things that we
otherwise would do manually.

There are a number of online training courses in the "Office Online" Help
that is easily accessible from the Help pane of Access 2003. Most of the
training also applies to earlier versions, too. The page that accesses the
training is http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/default.aspx.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP

 

[Mike Collard]

Thanks to all respondents it's heartening that my trial
and error approach is the way many others have learnt -
but at my advanced age the osmosis may take longer than
the time I have left!

Regards

Mike Collard

 

[Larry Linson]

Thanks to all respondents it's heart-
ening that my trial and error approach
is the way many others have learnt -
but at my advanced age the osmosis
may take longer than the time I have left!

I'm sure there are training companies that offer classroom classes, but
those I have seen advertised are a little pricey for me. They seem to cater
to corporate clients with deep pockets.

When I was "transitioning" to Access Basic in the early days of Access, I
read the newsgroups... and tried to come up with _answers_ to questions,
many of which required using VBA. That was my source of "homework
assignments".

Best of luck with learning and with your projects.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP