I was wondering if it's possible to create a VBA macro in Excel, which will save the file each X minutes. I've already figured how to initialize the macro after excel startup and I found on the google something like this should pause the macro
Application.Wait(Now + TimeValue("0:10:00"))
but this will also block the user input and he cannot make any changes during that time.
This is not a anti-crash protection , the reason why I need this, is that some users are forgetting to save the document regularly...
Thank you
Francis
The 2 examples of Simoco will work great, but if you want to prevent having to deal with unnecessary saves (especially if you're working on network files, or large files), you can do a check everytime there is a change in the worksheet.
Just use the Worksheet_Change function to do that, here is a possible pattern:
Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
If (Now > TimeStamp)
ThisWorkbook.SaveAs BlaBlaBlaBlaBla
TimeStamp = Now + TimeValue("0:10:00")
End If
End Sub
TimeStamp needs to be a global variable defined in each workbook.
Btw, make sure that saving your file every X minutes doesn't screw with the undo / redo function of excel. I remember I had unwanted behaviors in the past when using an auto-save function.
Other thought: Google document won't require this type of macro as there is no need to save.
Related
I had successfully created a macro, but had to keep recreating it for every Excel doc I wanted to use it in. Now it won't work for any of the workbooks.
Function GetURL(rng As Range) As String
On Error Resume Next
GetURL = rng.Hyperlinks(1).Address
End Function
What I would like to do is activate this macro across ALL workbooks, anytime I open Excel and use =GetURL(A1) I want it to get the HTTP link.
There are 2 approaches that I can think about to perform this:
1. Make an Add In that would contain your UDF and install properly
Official Documentantion
I think this is the best approach due to your statement
Quote: anytime I open Excel and use =GetURL(A1) I want it to get the HTTP link.>
2. You may use the UDF from the original workbook like so:
=Book1.xlsm!GetURL(A1)
As long as the workbook is opened
I have created an Excel Workbook with a lot of VBA code for a customer. The customer will provide me with data. I will import that data into the VBA laden template, Save it as an xlsm, and deliver it to the customer. I get paid by the Workbook so I need to prevent them from trying to copy new data into the existing workbook and reusing it.
How can I somehow prevent the customer from reusing a workbook by just entering in new data on the main Worksheet, then saving as a new Workbook, and getting the use of the VBA code for free. (Alternately they could copy the file in windows then enter new data on the copied version.) I need to detect a significant change in data from the initial imported data.
The data on the main sheet is fairly static (perhaps even totally static on many known columns). I'm thinking about randomly sampling some of the cell data on import (perhaps 10 random cells, or number of rows, etc.), and storing that data somewhere. If, say, 50% of the cells change data, I could just disable (or short-circuit) the public entry points in the code...or something else?
I'd like to allow for some flexibility on the part of the customer, but prevent abuse.
Is there a better way than my general idea, above?
Where could I store that data (it should be part of the sheet, but not changeable by the customer). Perhaps a hidden sheet with password locked cells?
Is there some accepted way of doing this that I'm unaware of?
Perhaps Time-expire the functionality in your code
So thank you for this question. Thank you for setting a bounty. It is a very interesting question given your desire to monetise the VBA code, as a VBA programmer I generally resign myself to not being able to monetise VBA code. It is good that you insist and I will contribute an attempt at an answer.
Firstly, let me join the chorus of answers that say VBA is easily hacked. The password protection can be broken. I would join the chorus of respondents who say you should pick a compiled language as the vessel for your code. Why not try C# or VB.NET housed in a Visual Studio Tools For Office (VSTO) .NET assembly?
VSTO will associate a compiled assembly with a workbook. This mechanism is worth knowing because if you insist on VBA we can use the same mechanism (see later). Each workbook has a CustomDocumentProperties collection where one can set custom properties (it says Document not Spreadsheet because the same can be found in Word so Document is the generalised case).
Excel will look at the workbook's CustomDocumentProperties collection and search for "_AssemblyName" and "_AssemblyLocation"; if _AssemblyName is an asterisk then it knows it needs to load a .NET/VSTO assembly, the _AssemblyLocation provides a lookup to the file to load (you'll have to dig in on this, I forget the details). Reference
Anyway, I'm reminded of VSTO CustomDocumentProperties mechanism because if you insist on using VBA then I suggest storing a value in the CustomDocumentProperties collection that helps you time expire the functionality of your code. Note do not use the BuiltInDocumentProperties("Creation Date") because it is easily identifiable; instead use a codeword, say "BlackHawk". Here is some sample code.
Sub WriteProperty()
ThisWorkbook.BuiltinDocumentProperties("Creation Date") = CDate("13/10/2016 19:15:22")
If IsEmpty(CustomDocumentPropertiesItemOERN(ThisWorkbook, "BlackHawk")) Then
Call ThisWorkbook.CustomDocumentProperties.Add("BlackHawk", False, MsoDocProperties.msoPropertyTypeDate, Now())
End If
End Sub
Function CustomDocumentPropertiesItemOERN(ByVal wb As Excel.Workbook, ByVal vKey As Variant)
On Error Resume Next
CustomDocumentPropertiesItemOERN = wb.CustomDocumentProperties.Item(vKey)
End Function
Sub ReadProperty()
Debug.Print "ThisWorkbook.BuiltinDocumentProperties(""Creation Date""):=" & ThisWorkbook.BuiltinDocumentProperties("Creation Date")
Debug.Print "CustomDocumentPropertiesItemOERN(ThisWorkbook, ""BlackHawk""):=" & CustomDocumentPropertiesItemOERN(ThisWorkbook, "BlackHawk")
End Sub
So you could set CustomDocumentProperty "BlackHawk" to the workbook's initial creation time and then allow the client to use the code for 24 hours, or even 48 hours (careful with weekends, create Friday work through to Tuesday) and then afterwards the code can refuse to operate and instead throw a message saying pay LimaNightHawk more money!
P.S. Good luck with your revenue model.
P.P.S. I read your profile, thanks for your military service.
Whatever you do it will be feasible to crack it (VBA code is easy to crack). However:
there is the contract so... that's not legal for them to do it
you can put part of the code on a FTP server and control physically what is being executed
Very nices ideas here though
Compile Excel file to EXE. Google for that.
Concern 1 seems to be basic re-use of the file. You could create a sub in the ThisWorkbook module to destroy code located in other modules in the event that save-as is selected.
Concern 2 seems to be someone hacking your password protection. A similar tactic could be employed such as using "opening the developer window" as your event instead of save as.
I have experimented with save events to log user entries with great success using the ThisWorkbook module. I am not certain how/if one could detect if the developer tab is opened.
Here's what I've done. Perhaps there is a entirely better approach, or there are tweeks to the below that will make it better:
From the VBA Tools menu > VBAProject Properties > Protection (tab), I Locked the project for viewing with a password.
I created a new "License" sheet.
This sheet is hidden from the user. If you hide the sheet via code like this:
Me.Visible = xlSheetVeryHidden
then then sheet cannot be un-hidden by the user (it requires running vba code to unhide).
On initial import I sample:
Number of imported rows
x number of randomly selected cells *from the columns I know won't/shouldn't change. (There are columns they are allowed to change freely.)
I store these on the "License" sheet in Address / Value pairs.
When the workbook is opened, the Workbook_Open event fires and then does a quick comparison of the current number of rows, and the current values for the addresses stored on the "License" sheet. I then do a percentage calculation: If the rows are more than x% different, or the number of changed values is more that y% then I
Sheets(1).Protect LOCKOUT_PASSWORD
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
Application.EnableEvents = False
There is also a method for unlocking the sheets if necessary.
This might be too simple of an answer, but sometimes we fail to think of the simplest solutions:
Why don't you simply provide the customer with only a copy of the output? You could run their data through your macro-enabled workbook, copy the output sheet into a new workbook, and then break all links so that there's no formulas, updating, or ties to your workbook.
I would create another workbook that contains the code and then reference the customers wb from that one.
I have an Excel Macro Template. I run a macro on it and it saves the new spreadsheet as an xlsx instead.
I'm just wondering if there's a simple command for VBA that just deletes a macro by name.
I've researched this a lot, and there are basically two answers which don't really fit.
The first is to not have macros in the workbook I'm saving and to just run macros from one workbook to another. (I don't want to do this for a few reasons, but simplicity is the main reason.)
The second is a VBA script that strips ALL VBA and connections from the workbook. (I don't need it to do that much, and I'd rather just delete the one macro I have.)
So, what I'm looking for is just something like this:
Delete.Macro("Import") 'This command deletes the macro in this workbook named "Import".
try
Sub main()
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
Workbooks("PutWorkBookName").SaveAs FileFormat:=xlOpenXMLWorkbook
Application.DisplayAlerts = True
End Sub
Fun thought, use VBA to remove VBA... but seems more work than necessary.
What about activeworkbook.saveas "filename.xlsx", xlExcel12?
As I am sure you are aware, an .xlsx doesn't have any code, so if you set warnings to false, etc., it will just save the file and delete the code.
Now, if I misread, and you want to delete only some of your code, leave the rest, and save as xlsx... you are out of luck.
I am wondering if there is a way to save ability to undo actions after macro has been run.
I do not care about results of macro - just need to undo actions that were done by user before macro.
Background:
I have a macro on the worksheet_change event that logs who and when made the change on this worksheet. I do not want it to restrict user's ability to undo his/her actions.
There is no easy way to do this, but it's possible. The approach to this is to create three macros, and use some global variables to save state:
MyMacro
MyStateSavingMacro
MyStateRevertingMacro
E.g. My macro changes Cells in Range A1:A10 of the active sheet. So, whenever the code to run my macro is called, it executes
Sub MyMacro()
Call MyStateSavingMacro()
' Copies contents and formulae in range A1:A10 to a global data object
'... Code for MyMacro goes here
'
'................
Call Application.OnUndo("Undo MyMacro", "MyStateRevertingMacro")
'This puts MyStateRevertingMacro() in the Undo queue
'So pressing ctrl-Z invokes code in that procedure
End Sub
Sub MyStateSavingMacro()
' Code to copy into global data structures anything you might change
End Sub
Sub MyStateRevertingMacro
' Code to copy onto the spreadsheet the original state stored in the global variables
End Sub
So there it is. It's not pretty, but can be done.
Ref: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff194135%28v=office.15%29.aspx
Edit:
To preserve the Undo queue prior to your MyMacro being run, the inelegant solution would be to create a chain of 4-5 MyStateRevertingMacro_1, _2, etc. where you can apply the information from your Worksheet_Change logging system and then chain-up the Application.OnUndo in each of those, so Application.OnUndo for each of those Reverting Macros would refer the previous state reversion code.
You can use the hidden mirror sheet to do this. Of course it will work if your worksheet is simple enough. You must decide which cells are editable and copy them TO mirror sheet, which are not editable and copy them FROM mirror sheet. And your macro should work only in the mirror sheet. That's it.
This one is a bit old now but in case anyone is still trying to get this to work - I just tried setting the undo stack to be able undo the formatting on a column that a macro had reformatted and noticed that by doing that the full undo command worked (before I added this bit the undo was unavailable) - does not matter what the custom undo code contains (in my case I had not even created the routine yet), the application undo works perfectly
Application.OnUndo "Undo Amount Format", "sUndo_Col2"
We receive Excel files daily from our field offices which I have to clean and re-format (about 110 columns and 500 rows-worth) using VBA.
I need to save my VBA as a macro so we can use it to clean up all the workbook we receive by running the macro and saving the edited sheet as a new worksheet by getting the name from UserForm Combobox items.
Where exactly should I store the VBA snippets? I mean when I open the Visual Basic panel, I have these three options:
Running The Code From Microsoft Excel Object :Sheets1(Sheet1)
Running the Code From An Inserted Module
Running the Code From User Form
If I am supposed to use options 1 or 2, how can I call the UserForm for saving the sheet?
I Recomend you to use modules (Option B)
Option C goes with option B, ill explain, you can create a sub in a module in option B, then you can do:
UserForm1.show
In Option B I would writte this code, but before trying this i recomend you to understand a bit more of vba
sub ClearWBs()
'opening workbook
Workbooks.Open Filename:="c:\book1.xls"
'your code
'your code
'below code for saving and closing the workbook
Workbooks("book1.xls").Activate
ActiveWorkbook.Save
ActiveWorkbook.Close
end sub
Use Module:
If your VBA code focusses on data summarization and manipulation I suggest you use a Module.(example is what you have described in your question).
Use Form:
If what you wan't to do requires a GUI(Graphical User Interface) then you'll have to resort to Form where you can design your GUI. (example is if you have many fields that the user needs to fill-up with distinct values in which you provide the choices)
Use Excel Object:
If what you wan't to do has something to do with events happening on Worksheet and/or Workbook, like for example whenever you add sheet the macro runs, or when you open or close the workbook the macro runs then you will have to write the macro in the Excel Object.
This is basically what i have in mind, hope this helps.
If you receive files that do not contain VBA and you need to apply the same code on those files all the time then I propose that you either save that code in your personal workbook.
You can see how to do that here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/excel-help/copy-your-macros-to-a-personal-macro-workbook-HA102174076.aspx
This is nice because you can also tie it to keyboard shortcut or just have it always ready for you to use.
The disadvantage is that it will only be set up per user session per computer. What you can do is have that code all set up in a module and then import it into your personal workbook if you change session or if someone else has to do it.
Once it's done, you will not have to include the module in your files your receive again.