1 00:00:00,900 --> 00:00:06,570 In this video we will be introducing Visual Basic for applications and giving an overview of when we 2 00:00:06,570 --> 00:00:10,350 might be able to use it particularly within Excel. 3 00:00:10,380 --> 00:00:19,960 And so this begs the question what is VBA Microsoft uses VBA or Visual Basic for applications as its 4 00:00:19,960 --> 00:00:22,040 primary programming language. 5 00:00:22,150 --> 00:00:28,090 So VBA lets you develop custom programs or features and build them into existing Microsoft applications 6 00:00:28,090 --> 00:00:29,160 like Excel. 7 00:00:29,230 --> 00:00:33,080 It can be used to simplify complex tasks or equations. 8 00:00:33,160 --> 00:00:38,800 It can automate time consuming processes and it can improve the quality and accuracy of various reporting 9 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:43,690 systems so it can be very useful within Microsoft products. 10 00:00:43,690 --> 00:00:48,970 A lot of times when we start talking about programming languages and custom functionality it can seem 11 00:00:48,970 --> 00:00:54,940 a bit overwhelming and intimidating particularly if you have no previous coding experience. 12 00:00:54,940 --> 00:01:01,000 So the nice thing about visual basic is that since it isn't intended to write for sophisticated programs 13 00:01:01,330 --> 00:01:07,420 but is rather meant to enhance existing programs it is relatively simple it's easy to learn and it's 14 00:01:07,420 --> 00:01:12,160 much more user friendly than other programming languages might be. 15 00:01:12,290 --> 00:01:18,950 So once you learn how to code in VBA it becomes easy to fall into the mindset of using VBA for everything 16 00:01:18,980 --> 00:01:23,720 because it's quick it's easy to implement and it's accurate but there are a few things need to keep 17 00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:28,490 in mind when it comes to VBA and when you're trying to determine whether or not you should implement 18 00:01:28,580 --> 00:01:35,690 a VBA solution first we can talk about the pros VBA will always perform the same exact way because it's 19 00:01:35,690 --> 00:01:40,460 a code based system which inherently means it's consistent and it's accurate. 20 00:01:40,550 --> 00:01:45,860 Again because you're letting the system perform the work for you you're limiting the opportunity you 21 00:01:45,860 --> 00:01:48,570 have for human error to get involved. 22 00:01:48,590 --> 00:01:50,710 It's also about a simplified user interface. 23 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:57,170 So even someone who doesn't necessarily understand the full task can come in and use your user interface 24 00:01:57,170 --> 00:01:59,400 to accomplish complex tasks. 25 00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:06,170 And it also saves resources usually the system itself will perform complex time consuming tasks in a 26 00:02:06,170 --> 00:02:12,260 matter of minutes which obviously has huge cost savings and time savings potential. 27 00:02:12,260 --> 00:02:18,080 Lastly when you're working within the confines of an existing program like excel there are things that 28 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:23,460 seem impossible to accomplish or with the full customised ability of VBA. 29 00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:28,400 There's actually nothing that's impossible you can do almost anything if you have a good understanding 30 00:02:28,460 --> 00:02:32,170 of VBA so there's obviously a lot of pros to using VBA. 31 00:02:32,180 --> 00:02:38,030 So now we can talk about the cons the major con is that you have to know VBA to use it. 32 00:02:38,030 --> 00:02:42,920 And again like we mentioned before it's actually very easy to learn and it's very simple compared to 33 00:02:42,920 --> 00:02:47,480 other programming languages but there is a learning curve involved in the beginning and you do need 34 00:02:47,480 --> 00:02:54,080 to understand VBA before you can implement VBA solutions just like we mentioned VBA is always consistent 35 00:02:54,110 --> 00:03:00,230 and it's always accurate cheating the correct level of accuracy often involves a lot of debugging and 36 00:03:00,230 --> 00:03:05,060 testing which can sometimes be complex it can sometimes be challenging and we're going to talk about 37 00:03:05,060 --> 00:03:07,120 that in a future video. 38 00:03:07,130 --> 00:03:14,030 Microsoft also occasionally releases updates to its programs like Excel or PowerPoint and those updates 39 00:03:14,090 --> 00:03:18,020 aren't always compatible with previously written macros. 40 00:03:18,050 --> 00:03:24,110 So when Microsoft releases an update you do need to recheck your macro and recheck your code and will 41 00:03:24,110 --> 00:03:28,600 potentially have to make some updates to make sure it still runs correctly. 42 00:03:28,610 --> 00:03:34,390 The last thing is you can't actually have a shareable workbook if you're using Excel and VBA. 43 00:03:34,500 --> 00:03:39,770 My recommendation if you're trying to use a shared file and have multiple people on the file at the 44 00:03:39,770 --> 00:03:47,600 same time but also implement VBA solutions to automate processes and reduce error would be to turn to 45 00:03:47,600 --> 00:03:54,720 Microsoft Access which is much more capable of handling multiple user interface. 46 00:03:54,860 --> 00:04:01,100 So in conclusion Visual Basic for applications is a really strong tool to know how to use and it's not 47 00:04:01,100 --> 00:04:03,270 terribly difficult to learn. 48 00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:08,960 The only thing we should consider before implementing a VBA solution is whether or not there might be 49 00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:12,920 simpler non code based solutions to the same problem. 50 00:04:13,370 --> 00:04:19,910 Oftentimes when we turn to VBA it's to accomplish something that seems initially impossible or to automate 51 00:04:19,970 --> 00:04:23,560 what is a time consuming and tedious process. 52 00:04:23,570 --> 00:04:30,410 So in this video we talked about what Visual Basic for applications is and how we might be able to use 53 00:04:30,410 --> 00:04:33,680 VBA which is what the duration of this course will be about.