Automating Excel & Access with Macros & VBA

In either one way or another we have come through the tiresome procedure of using the Excel or Access program manually by entering the data, copying and pasting results, editing and formatting as well as charting. This cumbersome procedure is because had not acknowledged the powerful automation built right into Excel or Access. The introduction of the Macros and VBA brought wonders and eased the way we work with many of the Ms Office programs. In this study, we are going to essentially discuss the difference between Macros and VBA.

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Visual Basic Programming also known as the VBA, is the computer programming language used to develop macros. In Excel, the Macros are recorded in VBA. VBA accommodates room to develop the capacity of macros and transform them into the intelligent programs. VBA allows the user to take advantage of the features that cannot be accessed through the standard user interface. VBA has various objects for the coder to work on like modules, classes, and VB forms; they are the common objects for all MS Office applications, hence it is known by some as the MS Office's "macro language". However, the object varies based on the type of the Ms. Office applications used, for instance, the MS Excel worksheet as its own object in VBE (Jelen & Syrstad, 2010).

Macros are different from VBA, since Macros are a programming series of commands that are run with a single click or keyboard combination. Macros can either be recorded through Excel action or written manually in code so as to store particular pre-recorded event, visual template, or formula for future use. Macros are essentially appreciated due to their efficiency and time saving, for instance by placing a Macros within an object can consent for the pre-recorded sorting options. With the Macro enabled workbooks, one can reuse a basic template with a macro if you desire to accomplish the same analysis you previously did with the new data. Macros can automate nearly everything that can be done in Excel program and enlighten on other actions that can be done to automate the functionalities. However, in the traditional perspective of the Access environment, the concept of macros was characterized with the step-by-step instructions that were not much about programming (Jelen & Syrstad, 2010).

Nowadays, the VBA is written with Macros, while before it had its own set of DOS functionalities that were known as the macro language. However, you can write macros in any form of programming language, many of them can be compiled and stored as executable files. On the hand, the VBA can be amassed into an .EXE file. VBA assembled on the fly, hence one can periodically get encounter some glitches when running a procedure that has actions to perform that needed more time than required to execute the next action (Jelen & Syrstad, 2010).

To sum up, the contrast between Macros and VBA are distinctive, and this study has drawn the line between them and indeed they are completely different from one another. It is understood that courtesy of VBA, Macro has undergone tremendous transformation to ease the functionality to accommodate the use of the Microsoft Office programs. But the Visual Basic is not compatible or effectively updated by the Microsoft; in 2010, the VBA programming language was upgraded and introduced the Visual Basic for Applications 7 which supports the Microsoft Office applications

Reference

Jelen, B., & Syrstad, T. (2010). VBA and Macros: Microsoft Excel 2010. Pearson Education.