[bksvol-discuss] Re: How-to question
- From: "Chela Robles" <cdrobles693@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 1 Jan 2010 22:05:42 -0800
How-to questionHere you go,
How to Build Macros in MS Excel and Word
Some repetitive tasks in Microsoft Word or Excel can be recorded, saved and run
by clicking a toolbar shortcut. The process is pretty easy and can help teach
you how to use macros to make your life easier and also start you on the road
to compiling and writing your own Visual Basic modules. Follow these
instructions, then use your imagination to build macros that relate to the work
that you do most
Instructions
Things You'll Need:
· Computer with Internet access
· Microsoft Word or Excel
· Paper
1. Step 1
Build a macro for text formatting. With a document or spreadsheet open, from
the "Tools" menu select "Macro," then "Record New Macro." In this window, type
in a name for your macro (such as "FormattingForProjectA" or
"FormattingSpecial"). In MS Word be sure that the "Store Macro In:" is set to
"All Documents" so that you can use the macro in any word document. In MS
Excel, store the macro either in "This Workbook" or the" Personal Macro
Workbook," depending on whether the macro will be used in more than one
workbook.
2. Step 2
"Record Macro" and "Stop" windows.
Click "OK." You will notice a small window named "Stop" at the top. Move this
window if necessary, but do not close it, as this stops your macro recording.
Select the text that needs to be changed and make the necessary changes such as
bold, underline, italic, text color or highlighting. When you are finished,
click the solid square in the small "Stop" window and your macro recording will
stop.
3. Step 3
Add your macro to a toolbar for one-click use. In MS Word, right-click a
toolbar and select "Customize." On the "Commands" tab of the "Customize"
window, select "Macros" from the "Categories" column on the left. Then find the
macro you just named in the "Commands" column on the right and drag it to the
toolbar. With the "Customize" window open, right-click your new toolbar
shortcut to change the name (just the shortcut name not the macro name), add a
button icon or perform other formatting. When you are finished, close the
"Customize" window. In Excel, right-click a toolbar and select "Customize." On
the "Commands" tab of the "Customize" window, select "Macros" from the
"Categories" column on the left. Drag the custom button to the desired toolbar.
With the "Customize" window open, right-click your new toolbar shortcut and
select "Assign Macro." Find and select your new macro and click "OK." You can
at the same time change the name (just the shortcut name not the macro name),
change the button icon or perform other formatting. When you are finished,
close the "Customize" window.
4. Step 4
Add the macro to a toolbar.
Now you can test your macro by selecting some text and clicking the shortcut.
If the macro does not work as expected, you can try re-recording by going
through all of the steps above again (you can delete the old shortcut when you
open the "Customize" window). Another way to fix a recorded macro is to go to
the "Tools" menu, select "Macro" and "Visual Basic Editor."
5. Step 5
Visual Basic Editor
Learn some simple Visual Basic writing by examining recorded macros and
combining or changing them while using the program help files and the Microsoft
knowledge base as learning tools. Record multiple macros that perform different
actions and combine them to further automate a single shortcut. Or find ways to
enhance your macros by organizing entire new toolbars containing multiple macro
shortcuts for formatting, changing margins, finding and replacing data or just
opening menu items to name a few (see Resources below).
Tips & Warnings
a.. There are slightly different instructions given for MS Word and MS Excel
in this article--be sure to use the appropriate steps for each program.
b.. If you do something over and over, it pays to take the extra time to set
up a toolbox shortcut. In the beginning it will be slow, but as with any new
endeavor, it gets easier with practice.
c.. The windows and other views may be different on your computer than shown
here. Consult Microsoft Support for specifics on your version of Windows (see
Resources below). If you are unsure or are not confident enough to try this
exercise, wait until you have more experience with your computer and software,
or take a class for more personal instruction.
Resources
· Go to the Microsoft Support page for help.
How to Create a Microsoft Word Macro that a Macro is a shortcut to something
you do a lot. In this part, you'll learn how to create your own Macros. The
simple macro we're going to create will do the following:
· Change some highlighted text to an Arial, 16 point Bold font
Let's get started.
· Open a new Word document
· Type in a few words of text. Anything you like
· Highlight your text, or just a single word of the text
· From the menu bar, click on Tools
· From the drop down menu click on Macro
· A sub menu appears
· Click on Record New Macro
When you click on Record New Macro, you get the Macro dialogue box popping up.
It looks like the one below:
There are four areas to the Record Macro dialogue box: Macro Name, Assign macro
to, Store macro in, and Description.
The first thing to do is to give your macro a name. At the moment it is called
"Macro1". That's not a very descriptive name for what we want our macro to do.
We'll call our macro FontChanger. Notice that we haven't put a space between
the two words. This is because macros don't like having spaces between words.
You have to put the name of your macro as all one word.
So go ahead and type in FontChanger as the Macro name, instead of Macro1.
The next section is "Assign macro to". You are given the choice of either
Toolbars or Keyboard. Ignore this section for now. We'll see later how to
assign our macro to a toolbar, and to the keyboard.
The next section is "Store macro in". At the moment it reads All Documents
(Normal.dot). Remember what Normal.dot is? That's the basic template for all
Microsoft Word documents. In other words, the macro we create will be available
to any new Word document. You can change this so that the macro is created in
only the document you're working on. Click the black down arrow to see the
title of the document you have open.
The final section is Description. This is just a record of when the macro was
created, and who created it. You can change this to anything you like.
Malicious folk creating nasty macros will definitely change these details.
Once you have given your macro a name, click the OK button. Your dialogue box
will look like this:
When you click the OK button, you are returned to your Word document. But now
you will see a strange toolbar floating over your page. And the mouse pointer
will be different. Your page will look like this:
The reason the little floating toolbar says Stop is because your macro is
already being recorded. The process has started. You don't have to panic, and
hurry it along. Take your time and think about what you're going to do.
The floating toolbar, though, has only two buttons. The square one is the stop
button; the two lines and the circle is the pause button. Notice that the mouse
pointer has changed, with a little cassette tape on the end of it. This
indicates that you are recording a macro.
One thing you can't do with a macro is record mouse movements. If you want to
move your cursor somewhere in your text, you'll have to use the arrow keys on
your keyboard. But the movement of the cursor then becomes part of your macro.
For our macro, because we highlighted the text before recording, we don't need
to move the cursor. Whatever we do from now on will become part of our macro.
· So click on Format from the menu bar
· From the drop down menu, click on Font
· The Font dialogue box appears
· Select Arial as your font
· Select Bold
· Select size 16
· Click the OK button on the Font dialogue box
· You are returned to your page
· Click the Stop button on your floating Macro Recorder
· The macro will stop recording, and the process is finished: You have recorded
the macro
If you make a mistake during the recording of your macro, and everything goes
horrendously and badly wrong, you can abort the recording and try again. To
abort your recording and try again, do the following:
· Click the Stop button on your recorder
· The recorder disappears
· Click Tools > Macro > Record New Macro
· In the Macro name part of the dialogue box that pops up, type in the name of
the macro that went wrong. In our case that would be FontChanger.
· Click OK
· Word displays a message box telling you that a macro with that name already
exists. It asks if you want to replace it
· Click Yes
· You are returned to your document, and the recorder is displayed
· You can now try again
· If things go wrong again, repeat these instructions
If nothing went wrong, you will now have a macro. So how do you get at it? To
use your new macro, do the following
· Type in some new text and Highlight it
· Click on Tools from the menu bar
· From the drop down menu, click on Macro
· From the sub menu that appears, click on Macros
· The Macros dialogue box appears:
Select the Macro that you want, then click the Run button at the top right of
the dialogue box. As you can see, the macro we created is in the list, and
already highlighted. When the Run button is clicked, the dialogue box will
disappear, and the highlighted text will change to Arial, Bold 16 points.
You might argue that by clicking on Tools > Macro > Macros, and then fiddling
about with the dialogue box is not exactly a shortcut. Surely it's just as easy
to click on Format > Font, and make your changes from there?
Also, I did a keyword search for macros in bookshare and I found:
http://www.bookshare.org/search?keyword=Macros
I hope I didn't make stuff sound too confusing tried to put it into plain
English that is understood. Email me offlist if you have any further questions
please?
----------------
"If you go without playing the trumpet for one day, no one knows, two days,
only you know, and more than three days without practicing, girl you better
look out, because everyone will know!"
Today, I find myself constantly saying those words, just to get myself going,
to not give up, and it works. Since I learned to play the trumpet at the tender
age of 10, I have spent so much passion and much diligence with that instrument
that I will not give up on it. Sometimes my instrument puts me into awkward
situations where I feel like they won't ever end, but the trumpet gives me a
lot of hope with the majestic, crystal-clear sound it brings to my ears.
----------------
Chela Robles
E-Mail: cdrobles693@xxxxxxxxx
MSNWindowsLive Messenger: cdrobles693@xxxxxxxxxxx
Skype: jazzytrumpet
----- Original Message -----
From: Kim Friedman
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010 9:28 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] How-to question
Hi, I've never done a macro and I'm wondering how one makes one. I'd love to
be able to find a nifty way so that I can say: 1. bold headings in 16 pt. Times
New Roman and put everything else in regular Times New Roman 12 pt.. 2. Make
sure the first lines of paragraphs are indented two spaces (for Braille users).
Then I'd like to do another macro the covers all the find-and-replace stuff. I
understand a macro is a program application that puts a lot of little steps
under one result. Any answer that can explain how one does this in language so
that even I can understand it will earn great thanks for enlightening somebody
who gets bewildered with tech talk. Regards, Kim.
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature
database 4736 (20100101) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
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