Microsoft Office

Part VI
Programming Excel with VBA
Saving Workbooks That Contain Macros
If you store one or more macros in a workbook, the file must be saved with macros enabled, which is a file
with an XLSM extension.
The first time you save a workbook that contains macros, the file format defaults to XLSX — a format that
can’t contain macros. Unless you change the file format to XLSM, Excel displays the warning shown in
Figure 39.4. You need to click No here and then choose Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook (*.xlsm) from the
Save As Type drop-down.
FIGURE 39.4
Excel warns you if your workbook contains macros and you attempt to save it in a nonmacro file format.
Two Types of VBA Macros
Before getting into the details of creating macros, you need to understand a key distinction. A VBA macro
(also known as a procedure) can be one of two types: a Sub or a Function. The next two sections discuss the
difference.
VBA Sub procedures
You can think of a Sub procedure as a new command that either the user or another macro can execute. You
can have any number of Sub procedures in an Excel workbook. Figure 39.5 shows a simple VBA Sub procedure.
When this code is executed, VBA inserts the current date into the active cell, formats it, makes the cell
bold, and then adjusts the column width.
FIGURE 39.5
A simple VBA procedure.
684