See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/281102173

Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)/Macro

Conference Paper · March 2015

CITATIONS READS
0 3,521

1 author:

Thomas Ngo-Ye
Alabama State University
47 PUBLICATIONS   146 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Thomas Ngo-Ye on 19 August 2015.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Ngo-Ye Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)/Macro

MICROSOFT VISUAL BASIC FOR APPLICATIONS (VBA)/MACRO

Thomas L. Ngo-Ye
Dalton State College
tngoye@daltonstate.edu

ABSTRACT
The purpose of this workshop is to introduce IS faculties and students how to write program in Microsoft Visual Basic for
Applications (VBA)/Macro. We plan to discuss basic concepts of VBA/Macro such as hierarchical Microsoft Office Object
Model and the difference between Macro and VBA. Then we will work on several concrete examples, including "Hello
World" VBA code, recording macro in Word and Excel and then editing the automatically generated VBA codes in VBA
editor, and some more complex real-world applications. We will also point out resources for additional help on VBA
programming, such as books, discussion forum, blogs, and Microsoft MSDN. To maximize the learning experience, we
recommend workshop attendees to bring their Windows laptop (with Microsoft Office 2007/2010/2013) to work on VBA
coding.
In this workshop, we also make a case why non-technical business students need to learn Microsoft VBA/Macro.
First, VBA skill is still relevant and useful today. VBA/Macro is widely used in financial industry and by many accountants.
Microsoft Office Macro can help business end users automate many processes and save lots of time from tedious manual
work. In many business scenarios, there is a pressing business need for VBA application, such as using VBA to produce drug
labels, because VBA is the most appropriate and straightforward technique for the specific work task.
Second, VBA is an ideal programming language/environment for teaching non-technical business students how to write code.
Microsoft continues its support of VBA in Office 2013. VBA environment is present ubiquitously in all PCs that run
Microsoft Office. VBA/Macro is relatively easy to learn and has immediate positive impact on end users’ experience. For
other programming language/environment such as Java and PHP, users have to download and install software to make them
work. Moreover, those hard-core programming languages have steeper learning curve and are more difficult to master.
Third, normally hard-core programmers do not specialize in VBA/Macro coding. Thus end users cannot rely on programmers
for supporting VBA applications. After acquiring VBA skill, end users can combine their domain knowledge with VBA skill
to create end user applications. In this way, end users take the control and eliminate or reduce the need of IT people
involvement. Therefore, end users who have VBA skill and apply it to work will get things done more effectively and
efficiently. This is consistent with the basic principle of end user computing paradigm.

Proceedings of the Southern Association for Information Systems Conference, Hilton Head Island, SC, USA March 20st–21nd, 2015 1

View publication stats