Newbie: VBA? Macro? Please Advise...

[pollywog1961]

I've been assigned the task of opening about 200 different s/s, with no
two being the same. They'll all have different numbers of worksheets
(some hidden, some not), different formats, number of columns and rows,
and varying degrees of formulas - some much more complicated than
others.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to open each of them and press a button
to have their entire contents copied to a new spreadsheet (different
name) into a single column in "Formula" view
(Tools/Options/View/Formula - I'm using Excel 2000). The column would
have the cell reference number and it's contents such as: A1: Date, A2:
38863, A:3 38862, A4: Total, B1: Amount, B2: 25, B3: 20, B4:
=Sum(B2:B3).

I guess my question is (because re-reading the info I just entered it's
become pretty obvious that VBA is the solution) how do I write the code,
and then, how do I attach it as a button to my toolbar? I have NO
previous VBA experience, and only limited exprerience recording and
running Macros (everyone's got to start somewhere...).

 

[mrice]

If you use your experience of recording macros, you will probably be
able to generate the code for transferring one of the 200+ spreadsheets
to the new one (chose a complex one with several sheets). Adapting this,
you could put it into a loop reading from a list of all the 200+ files
which are opened and closed sequentially. The workbook on my download
page can produce the list for you if the spreadsheets are in the same
folder structure.