Datasheet
VBA advantages
You can automate almost anything you do in Excel. To do so, you write
instructions that Excel carries out. Automating a task by using VBA offers
several advantages:
Excel always executes the task in exactly the same way. (In most cases,
consistency is a good thing.)
Excel performs the task much faster than you can do it manually
(unless, of course, you’re Clark Kent).
If you’re a good macro programmer, Excel always performs the task
without errors (which probably can’t be said about you or me).
If you set things up properly, someone who doesn’t know anything
about Excel can perform the task.
You can do things in Excel that are otherwise impossible — which can
make you a very popular person around the office.
For long, time-consuming tasks, you don’t have to sit in front of your
computer and get bored. Excel does the work, while you hang out at the
water cooler.
VBA disadvantages
It’s only fair that I give equal time to listing the disadvantages (or potential
disadvantages) of VBA:
You have to find out how to write programs in VBA (but that’s why
you bought this book, right?). Fortunately, it’s not as difficult as you
might expect.
Other people who need to use your VBA programs must have their
own copies of Excel. It would be nice if you could press a button that
transforms your Excel/VBA application into a stand-alone program, but
that isn’t possible (and probably never will be).
Sometimes, things go wrong. In other words, you can’t blindly assume that
your VBA program will always work correctly under all circumstances.
Welcome to the world of debugging and, if others are using your macros,
technical support.
VBA is a moving target. As you know, Microsoft is continually upgrading
Excel. Even though Microsoft puts great effort into compatibility between
versions, you may discover that VBA code you’ve written for Excel 2007
doesn’t work properly with older versions or with a future version of Excel.
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Chapter 1: What Is VBA?
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