Tired of repeating the same manual operations while managing data? It is very understandable. Repeating the very same action again and again, day in and day out, can be very frustrating not to mention expensive.  Excel spreadsheets can be managed effectively, repeating tasks and getting frustrated can be successfully prevented in Microsoft Excel using Macros. Now here is how you record and use an Excel macro, and how you manage data without making your life miserable, and with error. The following steps are for recording simple macro in Microsoft Excel.

  • First open the Excel application. This should be simple. You go to the “start” menu on your screen and follow “all programs”. Find Microsoft Excel and click to open.
  • Now, go to “file” and then “new” to open a new spreadsheet, “save as” to keep the new spreadsheet saved by a different name to avoid any confusion.
  • Find the “tools” button at the top menu bar of the new spread sheet and click. Here click “macro” following the temptation but avoid the “record macro” button for the time and go to “security” from there instead. Macro requires the use to set a security level. Ideally, you should set the security to medium. So. Click “medium” and it will be done. Click Okay to finish off this part of the business. The menu would close.
  • Now, go to the favorite button again. “Tools” menu followed by Macro again would show you a button “record macro”. Here you will be asked to enter the desired name:  you could have your company’s name or initials. Note, however, that the first character has to be a letter and the rest is up to you: you can sue letters or numbers and signs if you please. You cannot have spaces between characters though.
  • In the “Shortcut key” section, you would be required to type in a shortcut symbol to use to activate the macro immediately. This could be the first character of the name you selected for the application.
  • You would now be required to specify where you want to place the file. In the “store macro in” option you will have to select the destination. For an example, consider “store in… personal macro workbook”.
  • Find the descriptions section below and briefly describe the macro. After this you can save and close simply by clicking OK.
  • The recording formally comes now. A tiny window would pop up and it would show a blue button. Whenever you want to stop recording, you can press the blue button.
  • Here you would start entering say the names of the training managers in column A, first row. Once you are done entering the names, click the blue button to stop.
  • You can double check the recording now because once you have completed the above steps correctly, you are done. For double checking open a fresh Microsoft Excel window and press the keys Ctrl + (the selected shortcut code) and you will be directed to the macro you had recorded. Make sure you remember the code for shortcut to make the job easier.
  • As an alternative you can go to Microsoft Excel, and select tools, and then click on macro, and ten macros, from where you will have to select a directory or store where you had placed the record. Let’s just say, in the “macros” section you will find “personal macro workbook” and if you click there, you will have the list of records that you had stored in that folder. Of course the shortcut method is easier, but this is the longer route and requires you to know where the desired record has been saved by you.

These are the series of simple steps you need to follow in order to record a simple macro. In fact, when you learn this it is a very good idea to practice it and get the hang of it. This is so because as you excel, literally, you will need to record more complex macros and that would require a strong base. For complex records, there are complex techniques and procedures to record them. Gradually, you will see how the system works for you and it is not going to be a big deal at all by the end of the day. Learning afterwards can be facilitated by prior practice so go for it. And make sure to come back here for more free Excel help articles! And if the article helped you to learn about Excel macros, but if you have decided that the work is too much for you at this time, then call Christopher at 877-392-3539 for a free consultation and estimate. Christopher is in the corporate office in the Irvine area of Orange County California.