Excel Macro tutorial, A free guide to creating macros in Excel

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Creating macros using the excel macro recorder
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The simplest way to create a macro in Excel is to use the macro recorder.

The first step is to open up the workbook (file) that you wish to use the macro in.

Then click on Tools, hover over Macros and then select Record new macro from the menu.

You will now see the Record Macro dialogue box as shown below in fig 1.1:


 
There are 4 points of interest:

Name - Type the name of your macro.

Shortcut key - (optional) this has to be a letter, we have used h, so in our example the macro will run every time we hold down the CTRL key and press the H key.

Store macro in - This would normally be the workbook you are working on (this workbook), but you can save macros into a personal macro workbook.

Description - Here you can enter a description of the macro for your benefit.

When you have finished filling in the information click the OK button to start the macro recorder.

You will now see the macro recording box as shown in fig 1.2 below.






Everything you do now in the workbook will be recorded, so manually go through the process that you want your macro to recreate, for instance adding up a column.

When you have finished click on the small blue square within the macro recording box to stop recording.

Playing the macro back

To run the macro click on tools, hover the mouse over Macro, then select Macros.

You will see the Macro dialogue box similar to that shown in fig 1.3 below, your macro should be in there ready to use.



To use the macro simply select it and then click the Run button.

The macro dialogue box also allows you to delete and edit macros, for instance by clicking on the Options button you can assign or change the keyboard shortcut associated with each macro.

If you have assigned a keyboard shortcut to a macro then you can run it by holding down the CTRL key and pressing the associated letter.