I have a substantial bank of VBA modules written in an Excel 2010 add-in. Some of these are specific to Excel, but many are more general. For example one takes a part number and re-formats it; another contains a Case Select function to find a file in a network drive.
I want to use the common functions in Word and Outlook. I could copy and paste from the Excel to Word add-ins, but this makes it difficult to keep my code up to date - when I make an edit in one application, I must remember to copy to all the others.
My question is, is there any means of writing common code in one place (e.g. in the Excel add-in, or some other common location) so that all MS Office applications can access it as it if it's just another module?
The way this used to be done was to take your code and compile it into a COM (or ActiveX) DLL using Visual Basic 6. Then you could add that DLL, using the VBA editor's "Tools...References" dialog, from any Office (or other) product that supported VBA, the same way you might use, say, the Microsoft Scripting Runtime, which is super-handy for things like Dictionary, FileSystemObject and TextStream.
Problem is, VB6 was released sometime in 1998 and has not been available from or supported by Microsoft for years now. There seem to be quite a few download sites offering the package - I can't offer any advice about the legality or security issues that might be experienced by using them...
Shamefully, Microsoft dropped the VBA ball years ago - it seems they mostly wish it would just Go Away.
You would need to create a COM add-in (.dll) for that, which would require Visual Studio or some other tool capable of creating COM exposed addins. There hasn't been any facility for this in Office since the old Office Developer edition.
VB6 is best way. VB6 is still supported for compiled programs. The IDE been tested and found to work up to Windows 10 (32 bit only) by MS but is unsupported.
If you want to convert to vbscript you can use wsc files instead of a dll.
From Script Components Overview
Windows® Script Components are an exciting new technology that allows you to create powerful, reusable COM components with easy-to-use scripting languages such as Microsoft® Visual Basic® Scripting Edition (VBScript) and Microsoft® JScript®.
Make one, make a type library, set a reference to typelibrary in Word and Excel.
Maybe can help somebody.
My solution has been set conditional compiler arguments in project properties:
In excel project: SOFT_EXCEL = 1 : SOFT_OUTLOOK = 0
In outlook project: SOFT_EXCEL = 0 : SOFT_OUTLOOK = 1
Then, in module:
Public Sub as_email()
#If SOFT_EXCEL Then
Debug.Print "this executes and compiles in excel"
#End If
#If SOFT_OUTLOOK Then
Debug.Print "this executes and compiles in outlook"
#End If
End Sub
Related
I have created a working Powerpoint add-in (.ppam) that offers several time saving features, and added a custom UI ribbon tab to improve accessibility.
As I look to distribute this add-in to users, I'm looking to improve code security by compiling it into a COM add-in (.dll) via VS Express.
I have looked all over the web for documentation on this, and have found some promising source, such as:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/creatingcomaddin.aspx
Unfortunately, nearly everything I find appear to be quite outdated and based on Office XP or 2003, when I'm looking at Office 2010. I'm probably doing something wrong here, but I'm having trouble replicating their instructions on my end, running into errors like being unable to add a reference library or the code they suggest is not recognized. I actually am even unsure how to open for example the sample VB project that the Pearson site provides from the link above to imitate. I think all this may be because of the different versions of Office and Visual Studio, but could certainly be wrong.
Could anyone point me in the right direction? My understanding is that it's actually quite simple to convert the code from VBA to VB (just involves adding "Powerpoint.Application." in front of things like "activewindow"). So I just need to figure out how to convert a very simple VBA add-in into a COM add-in in VS Exp 2012 for Office 2010, and then can leverage the process to convert the full add-in.
Apologies if I'm using any of the terms incorrectly.
Sorry if this is a silly question.
What can I do to make my VBA code work on Office 2003/2007/2010 ?
Can it be done or should I create different VBA code for each?
I use
WinHttp.WinHttpRequest.5.1
Make a lot of Windows API Calls
Have five references to libraries
wininet.dll
kernel32
Outlook.Application
InternetExplorer.Application
I'm developing on Office 2007 but users with Office 2010 cant run the code. Not sure about users runnning other office versions.
I have also seen that one can create an Excel-Addin in Visual Studio but I dont have a lot of experience in that area.
Thx for any suggestions.
for different versions of Excel, you can just use Conditional Compilation such as #If Application.version>n then
However, for any users who have Win64 systems, you will have to provide different methods of calling the API functions.
Your best bet is to try and manipulate Excel using Automation either from .NET using Office.Interop, or VSTO.
A bit of preface: this project, while technically homework, is completely under my 5-man team's control. We came up with the project, defined the scope, and exercise full creative control. So it's not traditional homework, it's equivalent to a senior project.
One of the outputs of the system I'm developing should be very similar to a well formatted Excel spreadsheet. We could create (or find) a graphics library and handle the printing in our own code... but ultimately we feel that an Excel spreadsheet file will be more portable. As the user can open it up in Excel, edit it, e-mail it, etc.
Accessing Excel programatically seems simple enough (i.e: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302094)
But my question is: what happens when "Office 2013" comes out, and the user removes Office 2010 and installs 2013?
I won't be around to maintain this project... and I'd hate to force someone into opening up my code just to reference the Excel 13.0 COM.
I'll be using incredibly basic functions of the API.
So long as I can read-and-write to a range of cells, and adjust the interior color of cells, my code will work.
In general, how can I make my VB.Net code access whatever Microsoft Excel API is available on the target system? (Including future Excel APIs.)
I recommend first developing using the Excel PIA (Primary Interop Assemblies) so you get autocomplete and online help in Visual Studio.
Once your program is complete, I recommend switching to late-binding before publishing, so your EXE works with different versions of Excel.
Develop first using the current Excel PIA until it works as you
want (Google "Excel PIA" to download the assemblies)
When your program is complete, add Option Strict Off to the top of the modules that use Excel objects
Replace all Excel PIA classes with Object e.g.Dim xls As Excel.Application becomesDim xls As Object
Replace xls = New Excel.Applicationwith xls = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
Remove the Excel PIA reference and tidy up
I just came to know that macros in Word/Excel/PowerPoint can be programmed. That is awesome because I've a Word document with 70 tables for styling.
I'm a programmer but I don't know VB, VBA or VB .NET. I'm confused with these three. I'm familiar with .NET programming using C#. Now I want to write new macros. Where should I get started? What are VB, VBA, VB.NET and which one should I learn? Please suggest some material.
If I learn for Word 2007 will that help with other Office applications life Excel & PowerPoint?
Here's a brief explanation of the different Visual Basics:
Visual Basic 6 (VB6, or classic VB)
Released around 1998, this was the last iteration of Microsoft's original "Visual Basic." It has the beginnings of object-oriented development, but it requires the Visual Basic Runtime for applications to run. A lot of companies have used VB6 for internal business applications. It was superceded by VB.NET and the .NET Framework.
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)
VBA shares the same code base as VB6 and in 1996 was available to be licensed to developers to include in their own applications. This is how VBA appears in Microsoft Office, as an embedded language that can be used to control Office's various applications. It's important to remember that VBA, which is still used to code office applications, is over a decade old and may feel as such when one is used to working with .NET.
Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET)
VB.NET was a radical departure from VB6. Though subsequent iterations of VB.NET have been referred to in sequence (e.g. VB7, VB8, etc.) by many developers, VB.NET shares very little with VB6 and VBA other than the BASIC syntax. Many consider it more of a new evolution in BASIC rather than an evolution in Visual Basic. Because it's entirely different from VBA and VB6, you cannot not use VB.NET code directly in VBA.
Because VB.NET code compiles down to the same managed intermediate language code as C# and shares the same .NET APIs, you may feel more commonality between C# and VB.NET than VB6 and VB.NET from a programming perspective.
If you anticipate doing a lot of development in VBA, I would highly recommend the VBA Developer's Handbook, Second Edition, by Getz and Gilbert.
Learning the VBA syntax for Word will certainly help you when you go to use Excel, Access, etc. However, each application has its own API that provides a set of objects and methods unique to its domain. For example, I'm very familiar with programming in VBA in Excel and Access, but I have never done macro programming in Word. Although the code syntax would be the same, I'd have to learn Word's API to be able to program against it.
The nice thing about some of the Office applications (Excel, for example) is that you can record a macro, see what code it generates, and then tweak that code to do what you want. That's largely how I got started in programming.
There are some good answers here - I'd like to offer one more set of suggestions:
First, if supported in your environment, you can use Visual Studio 2005/8/10 and your C# skills to program against Office with "Visual Studio Tools for Office". See this thread for more details.
If you want to delve into VBA instead (which I personally love because development is so fast compared to VS), start with this article Ten Code Conversions for VBA, Visual Basic .NET, and C# which will show you samples from all three languages. Next, watch this webcast: Using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) Every Day Is Easier Than You Think.
Thirdly- MSDN, read through this: Getting Started with VBA in Word 2010. 99% of it applies to Word 2007. There are many other articles linked from this one or you can always go to the main page of Office VBA Developer Center as a single jump page.
Then it's probably time to get started to directly program. See how things work, learn Word's Object Model, etc. You can always browse SO under the word-vba tag to see what other people are trying to do and the answers.
You always have MSDN.
If you go to Microsoft Word > Developer > Visual Basic and open up ThisDocument in the left menu, you will have the editor. If you press F2 you will get the libraries that can be used in Microsoft Word (the Object Browser). The easiest program would be the following:
Sub Hello()
MsgBox "Hello World"
End Sub
When you have the sub marked, press F5 (to run).
In the Object Browser you will have three different objects, properties, functions and events. When you see something that strikes your interest, go to the reference for word vba and locate it.
[If the link changes, you can find it in the tree under MSDN Library > Office Development > 2007 Microsoft Office System > Word 2007 > Word 2007 Developer Reference > Word Object Model Reference]
I think the easiest thing to do is to define a problem you need fixed and try to program it, similar to learning any other language. Don't make the problem to easy, but not to hard that you give up.
What is the difference between the two. I always thought VBA is somewhat 'crippled' version of VB, but when a friend asked me the other day I had no idea what the actual differences are.
Also, when you use, for example, Excel, is that VB or VBA ?
For nearly all programming purposes, VBA and VB 6.0 are the same thing.
VBA cannot compile your program into an executable binary. You'll always need the host (a Word file and MS Word, for example) to contain and execute your project. You'll also not be able to create COM DLLs with VBA.
Apart from that, there is a difference in the IDE - the VB 6.0 IDE is more powerful in comparison. On the other hand, you have tight integration of the host application in VBA. Application-global objects (like "ActiveDocument") and events are available without declaration, so application-specific programming is straight-forward.
Still, nothing keeps you from firing up Word, loading the VBA IDE and solving a problem that has no relation to Word whatsoever. I'm not sure if there is anything that VB 6.0 can do (technically), and VBA cannot. I'm looking for a comparison sheet on the MSDN though.
VBA stands for Visual Basic for Applications and so is the small "for applications" scripting brother of VB.
VBA is indeed available in Excel, but also in the other office applications.
With VB, one can create a stand-alone windows application, which is not possible with VBA.
It is possible for developers however to "embed" VBA in their own applications, as a scripting language to automate those applications.
Edit: From the VBA FAQ:
Q. What is Visual Basic for Applications?
A. Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is an embeddable programming environment designed to enable developers to build custom solutions using the full power of Microsoft Visual Basic. Developers using applications that host VBA can automate and extend the application functionality, shortening the development cycle of custom business solutions.
Note that VB.NET is even another language, which only shares syntax with VB.
Here's a more technical and thorough answer to an old question: Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and Visual Basic (pre-.NET) are not just similar languages, they are the same language. Specifically:
They have the same specification: The implementation-independent description of what the language contains and what it means. You can read it here: [MS-VBAL]: VBA Language Specification
They have the same platform: They both compile to Microsoft P-Code, which is in turn executed by the exact same virtual machine, which is implemented in the dll msvbvm[x.0].dll.
In an old VB reference book I came across last year, the author (Paul Lomax) even asserted that 'VBA' has always been the name of the language itself, whether used in stand-alone applications or in embedded contexts (such as MS Office):
"Before we go any further, let's just clarify on fundamental point. Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the language used to program in Visual Basic (VB). VB itself is a development environment; the language element of that environment is VBA."
The minor differences
Hosted vs. stand-alone: In practical, terms, when most people say "VBA" they specifically mean "VBA when used in MS Office", and they say "VB6" to mean "VBA used in the last version of the standalone VBA compiler (i.e. Visual Studio 6)". The IDE and compiler bundled with MS Office is almost identical to Visual Studio 6, with the limitation that it does not allow compilation to stand-alone dll or exe files. This in turns means that classes defined in embedded VBA projects are not accessible from non-embedded COM consumers, because they cannot be registered.
Continued development: Microsoft stopped producing a stand-alone VBA compiler with Visual Studio 6, as they switched to the .NET runtime as the platform of choice. However, the MS Office team continues to maintain VBA, and even released a new version (VBA7) with a new VM (now just called VBA7.dll) starting with MS Office 2010. The only major difference is that VBA7 has both a 32- and 64-bit version and has a few enhancements to handle the differences between the two, specifically with regards to external API invocations.
Do you want compare VBA with VB-Classic (VB6..) or VB.NET?
VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) is a vb-classic-based script language embedded in Microsoft Office applications. I think it's language features are similar to those of VB5 (it just lacks some few builtin functions), but:
You have access to the office document you wrote the VBA-script for and so you can e.g.
Write macros (=automated routines for little recurring tasks in your office-work)
Define new functions for excel-cell-formula
Process office data
Example: Set the value of an excel-cell
ActiveSheet.Cells("A1").Value = "Foo"
VBC and -.NET are no script languages. You use them to write standalone-applications with separate IDE's which you can't do with VBA (VBA-scripts just "exist" in Office)
VBA has nothing to do with VB.NET (they just have a similar syntax).
Actually VBA can be used to compile DLLs.
The Office 2000 and Office XP Developer editions included a VBA editor that could be used for making DLLs for use as COM Addins.
This functionality was removed in later versions (2003 and 2007) with the advent of the VSTO (VS Tools for Office) software, although obviously you could still create COM addins in a similar fashion without the use of VSTO (or VS.Net) by using VB6 IDE.
It's VBA. VBA means Visual Basic for Applications, and it is used for macros on Office documents. It doesn't have access to VB.NET features, so it's more like a modified version of VB6, with add-ons to be able to work on the document (like Worksheet in VBA for Excel).
VB is not a language. VB is a program that hosts VBA, just as Office hosts VBA. VB is a set of App objects, just like Word and Excel have, and a forms package, just like in Office.
So you can only write VBA code in VB.
PS this info is on the INFO tab on the VB question page for VB.
From VBA Info
VBA 6, was shipped in 1998 and includes a myriad of licensed hosts, among them: Office 2000 - 2010, AutoCAD, PI Processbook, and the stand-alone Visual Basic 6.0
VBA stands for Visual Basic For Applications and its a Visual Basic implementation intended to be used in the Office Suite.
The difference between them is that VBA is embedded inside Office documents (its an Office feature). VB is the ide/language for developing applications.
VB (Visual Basic only up to 6.0) is a superset of VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). I know that others have sort of eluded to this but my understanding is that the semantics (i.e. the vocabulary) of VBA is included in VB6 (except for objects specific to Office products), therefore, VBA is a subset of VB6. The syntax (i.e. the order in which the words are written) is exactly the same in VBA as it would be in VB6, but the difference is the objects available to VBA or VB6 are different because they have different purposes. Specifically VBA's purpose is to programatically automate tasks that can be done in MS Office, whereas VB6's purpose is to create standard EXE, ActiveX Controls, ActiveX DLLs and ActiveX EXEs which can either work stand alone or in other programs such as MS Office or Windows.