1/11/2021 Progress Indicator in Excel VBA - Easy Excel Macros

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Below we will look at a program in Excel VBA that creates a progress indicator. We've kept the
Chapter
progress indicator as simple as possible, yet it looks professional. Are you ready?
Userform
The Userform we are going to create looks as follows:

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Interactive Userform

To create this Userform, execute the following steps.

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1. Open the Visual Basic Editor. If the Project Explorer is not visible, click View, Project Explorer.
progress-indicator.xlsm
2. Click Insert, Userform. If the Toolbox does not appear automatically, click View, Toolbox. Your
screen should be set up as below.
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This Userform only consists of three controls. A frame control and two label controls.

3. Add the frame control. You can do this by clicking on Frame from the Toolbox. Next, you can
drag a frame control on the Userform. You need to change some properties of this frame control.
Right mouse click on the frame control, and then click on Properties. Empty the Caption field, set
the Height to 24 and Width to 204.

4. Add the first label control and place it in the Frame control. Right mouse click on the label
control, and then click on Properties. Change the name to Bar, BackColor to Highlight, empty the
Caption field, set the Height to 20 and Width to 10.

5. Add the second label control and place it above the Frame control. Right mouse click on the
label control, and then click on Properties. Change the name to Text and change the Caption to
'0% Completed'.

6. Change the caption of the Userform to Progress Indicator.

Once this has been completed, the result should be consistent with the picture of the Userform
shown earlier.

7. Place a command button on your worksheet and add the following code line to show the
Userform:

Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()

UserForm1.Show

End Sub

If you have gone through the other Userform examples on this site, you know that this is the time
to create the Sub UserForm_Initialize. This Sub runs automatically whenever the Userform is
loaded. Thus, when you use the Show method for the Userform, the code will automatically be
executed. Instead of the Sub UserForm_Initialize, we create the Sub UserForm_Activate. By using
this sub, Excel VBA can update the Userform to show the progress of the macro.

8. Open the Visual Basic Editor.

9. In the Project Explorer, right click on UserForm1 and then click View Code.

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1/11/2021 Progress Indicator in Excel VBA - Easy Excel Macros

10. Choose Userform from the left drop-down list. Choose Activate from the right drop-down list.

11. Add the following code line:

Private Sub UserForm_Activate()

code

End Sub

Explanation: this sub calls another sub named code we are going to create in a minute.
Confused? You can go through our Function and Sub chapter to learn more about subs. If you
are in a hurry, just execute the following steps and you will be fine.

12. Place the sub named code into a module (In the Visual Basic Editor, click Insert, Module). This
is just an example. This is THE place to add your own code when you want to use this progress
indicator for your own macro. The code looks as follows.

Sub code()

Dim i As Integer, j As Integer, pctCompl As Single

Sheet1.Cells.Clear

For i = 1 To 100
For j = 1 To 1000
Cells(i, 1).Value = j
Next j
pctCompl = i
progress pctCompl
Next i

End Sub

Explanation: first, we initialize some variables. Next, we clear sheet1. We use a double loop to
show the values from 1 to 1000 in the first 100 rows of the worksheet. This will keep Excel VBA
busy for a while and gives us the opportunity to see the progress of the macro. The variable
pctCompl (abbreviation for percentageCompleted) measures the progress of the macro. Finally,
we call another sub named progress and pass the value of the variable pctCompl to update the
Userform. This way we can see the progress of the macro!

13. Add another sub named progress. The code looks as follows:

Sub progress(pctCompl As Single)

UserForm1.Text.Caption = pctCompl & "% Completed"

UserForm1.Bar.Width = pctCompl * 2

DoEvents

End Sub

Explanation: the first code line changes the caption of the first label control. The second code line
changes the width of the second label control. Add DoEvents to update the Userform.

14. Exit the Visual Basic Editor and click the command button on the sheet:

Result:

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1/11/2021 Progress Indicator in Excel VBA - Easy Excel Macros

Note: for this macro, we used the variable i to measure the progress. For example, at row 11, 10%
is completed. This may be different for your macro. The technique of passing the value of the
variable pctCompl to the sub progress to update the Userform remains the same.

4/11 Completed! Learn much more about userforms >

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