Is it possible to teach ones self VBA?

[Ron]

Hello all,

Firstly let me thank all the experts who give their time and replies freely
to this forum/newsgroup.

I'm wanting/willing to learn VB6/VBA, but personal circumstances dictate
that I cannot enroll for college courses. I live far from major colleges
and my local college doesn't go anywhere near programming.

I'm willing to buy books but am loathe to pay high prices for information
that isn't useful to me.

Is it possible to be an expert at VBA and be totally self taught?

If so, can anyone reccomend any books/courses that will take a beginner
forward?

Regards,

Ron

 

[Ed]

Hi, Ron. Yes, it is possible to become self-taught. I have done exactly
that. Except what I taught myself was nowhere near as useful as what the
good people here on the newsgroup have taught me.

A few ideas:
(1) Pick a real issue to work through. That way, you know if you have real
results. If you don't have one at the moment, look at some of the questions
posted here. Set it up and figure out how you would work through it.
(2) Do a Google search of the newsgroups to find previous posts and
solutions. Try to work your way through the answers and understand both why
and how, not just memorize or steal bits of code.
(3) Use the macro recorder to create your own macros, then look at the code
created. It'll give you some ideas of what code looks like and how it flows
(though not what *good, streamlined* code looks like - the recorder throws
everything AND the kitchen sink!).
(4) Try comparison shopping on the 'net for some good reference books.
I've gotten $45 and $60 books for less than half - brand new!
(5) Try some things and have fun making a few mistakes. (Just make sure
you have backups of anything important! Better yet - don't experiment on
real data!)

HTH
Ed

PS - VB6 and VBA are NOT the same thing! VB6 creates stand-alone programs,
while VBA is the macro language packaged with the application and specific
to the application object model.

 

[Stefan Bialucha]

Hi Ron!

Is it possible to be an expert at VBA and be totally self taught?

sure, bottom up. Work carefully through every problem you encounter and you
will be an expert after a while. Knowledge sources are freely available
around the web, they will come up with every search you'll do. To get an
overview for instance you can browse the Microsoft Developers Net Work
(MSDN) library. Also VB development environment includes examples an of
course famous F1 key.

Stefan.

 

[JK]

Hi Ron,

Yes, but I recommend you buy John Walkenbachs book "Excel 2000 Power
Programming." (I make no money for this endorsement). The book virtually
touches on every subject you need to create your own VBA application.

Regards...Jim Kobzeff

 

[Michael Smith]

...and don't hesitate to post questions on the forum... I learned by
using Walkenach's book and by asking many (sometimes simple) questions
on this site.

 

[Jeremy Gollehon]

Hi Ron,

I've completely taught myself VBA by using these newsgroups and books to
tackle real problems.
A great place to find good priced programming books is:
http://www.bookpool.com/.x/er388a4p8m/ss/1?qs=excel+vba

 

[mark]

I am in the process of teaching myself VBA6 using books and real world
problems. I have found books (Cheap ones very useful) but Newsgroups even
more helpful for instance I have just bought Excel VBA (In easy steps - from
PC World which is big print and colour for just over a tenner!
"ineasysteps.com" haven't been to the web site yet but it may be useful)
Personal circumstances also dictate that I cannot attend college (time/cost)
so I'll just plod on and keep learning at my pace.
Keep on going
Mark

 

[Ron]

Cheers for all the replies guys.

Another question..........does being a VBA expert enhance ones career
prospects?

I suffered a bad accident 5 years back which cut short a good manual
career, so a rethink/retrain is needed.

I'm in a good enough financial situation to spend a year or so teaching
myself something else.......I like VB / VBA so this looks favourite to me.

Again thanks again guys.

Ron

 

[Michael Smith]

I tell ya man,....The only advice I can give is my own experience and
the route I took, classic story really.. college business degree, but no
tangible skills beyond that. Learned a little VBA, found a company that
was excel dependent (they're everywhere) and made their life easier.
Definetly a better career move than trying to learn a trade or working
your way up in a field. My humble opinion, all programming is similar,
understand the concepts behind what these programs are doing, and you
become much more marketable to companies.

 

[Ed]

For me, Ron, it was one of the best things I've ever done! I am a reports
writer, taking data from engineering tests and creating the reports. I'm
not educated enough to perform the tests or do all the analyses; I just
compile everything into a readable coherent format.

But there's a lot of data. Being able to track and update it was a
nightmare! Then I thought, Can't the computer do this? Enter VBA. I've
made Word and Excel talk to each other, and even learned a little bit of
Visual Basic. I started about a year ago; I've earned several cash awards
since for helping with macros and creating methods for the engineers (God
bless their brilliant but senseless pointy little heads!) to sort and sift
all the data they produce.

I'm now anticipating my next upward move; not sure what it will be, but they
are going to create a niche based on what I've shown is possible. Learning
VBA is not a bad thing!

Ed

 

[Guest]

I wish I had found VBA when I was in a similar situation reference
collating data and making it look pretty for the powers that be, it
would have been a real time saver!

 

[Ed]

I was almost forced into doing *something*!! When I started on my current
project about a year ago, there were about 3,000 documents to categorize and
track. There are now over 14,000! We were adding at times more than 200 a
day! One of my macros, for instance, filters the sheet down to an item and
certain criteria, selects the applicable 150 or so records, pastes the block
into Word as a table, then breaks it up into components and formats the
individual tables for the report. After taking a draft report and an
updated spreadsheet and spending 3 1/2 hours comparing numbers to see what
changed, I now have another macro that does that for me in about 5 minutes!

The other thing I do is make sure others know that I can do this, and point
out ways I can help them. That kind of company-internal self-marketing has
gotten me several accolades. It may not work everywhere, but you're liable
to hit someone who can really appreciate it and reward you.

Ed