[...]... a particular VBA feature and helps you build your VBA knowledge In each chapter, I discuss a particular topic and include example programs that you can use to discover more about VBA on your own You can find the source code for this book, along with Bonus Chapters, on the Dummies.com Web site at http:// www.dummies.com/go/vbafd5e 3 4 VBA For Dummies, 5th Edition Part I: An Overview of VBA The main... supports forms, just like the forms that you use to perform other tasks In this case, you decide what appears on the form and how the form acts when the user works with it To make it easier to create forms, VBA provides the Toolbox, like the one shown in Figure 1-4, which contains controls used to create forms Figure 1-4: Use the VBA Toolbox to add controls to forms you create Each Toolbox button performs... yes All Office products support VBA, and you can use VBA to perform a wealth of tasks, many of which will seem impossible now Older versions of Office provide a convenient method for accessing the VBA editor Simply use the Tools➪Macro➪Visual Basic Editor command to display the VBA editor where you type your VBA commands and store them for later use One of the reasons for this section is that Microsoft... can truly say that VBA is an amazing tool because you’re doing amazing things with it After seeing everything that people are doing with VBA, it’s easy to say that this is the tool for everyone! About This Book VBA For Dummies, 5th Edition, is a reference book You don’t have to read it in any particular order, and you can skip anything that you don’t find interesting Readers who have VBA programming experience... VBA is all about doing things your way When you want an application to perform a task in a certain way, use VBA to extend it VBA makes you the boss After you discover the wonders of VBA, you can customize a number of applications to make them work the way you want them to work VBA is a tool that empowers you to perform tasks you never thought possible in a fraction of the time that it takes to perform... the secret handshake for starting the VBA Editor Using the VBA editor is just a little different from the word processors you’ve used in the past Along the way, you see some interesting uses for VBA and just how many applications you can modify by using it 10 Part I: An Overview of VBA Batteries Included — VBA Comes with Office A good many people have written to ask me whether VBA really does come... chapter by chapter, you acquire a complete view of VBA, even if you’ve never used it This book contains many examples from my own library I write VBA programs for all my applications that support it because I know that using VBA can save me time and effort In addition, I write VBA programs for some of my consulting clients This real-world approach to using VBA will help you get started quickly Some of the... the same information that I wrote for the last letter Sometimes you can automate letters by using mail merge, but that generally doesn’t work too well for individualized letters In these situations, I set up a form that contains the common information that I include in some letters but not in others I check off the items that I need for the current letter, and VBA automatically writes it for me You... I have several programs that I’ve created for Excel For example, whenever I get a new client for my business, I click a button, and VBA creates all the required client entries in Excel for me Because Excel performs the task the same way every time, I can’t forget anything and each client receives the same level of high-quality service You can see techniques for creating automated Excel worksheets in... the result of my experiments with the new Ribbon interface You’ll find that the Ribbon adds a new dimension to working with VBA and that it breaks some of your older code Fortunately, you’ll find many of the answers for fixing your applications in this book 2 VBA For Dummies, 5th Edition Conventions Used in This Book I always try to show you the fastest way to accomplish any task In many cases, this .