Do you have to repeat the same set of work every other day? How do you manage your monotonous work on Microsoft Excel? Believe me, Macros is a blessing for you. How? Let’s see.

There are a certain set of functions in Microsoft Excel that we use on a daily basis. How about having a tool that will do the routine tasks for you in just a click? Macro helps you achieve that.

What is Macro?

Macro is nothing but just a set of instructions that gets recorded on your first execution.  Once you’ve created a macro, Excel will execute those instructions, step-by-step, on any data that you give it. Let’s understand with an example.

You can create a macro that tells Excel to take a number, add two, multiply by five, and return the modulus. Now, whenever we tell Excel to run that macro, we don’t have to manually do each step; Excel will do them all. This saves a lot of time eventually adding on to your productivity.

Know more about Macros here.

Who uses Macro?

If you want to understand it from career point of view, this function of Microsoft Excel is used in almost every profession where analysis is involved. If you have plans of getting into any of the data wrangling careers, go for it. Check some of the professions where Macros Gurus are in great demand.

 

 

How to create a Macro

Step 1:  

Click on the developer tab as shown:

Step 2:

Next is to record the macro. So, click on “Record Macro” on the Developer tab or on the Record Macro button that appears on the left side of the Status Bar.

Step 3:

The record macro dialog appears. This dialog allows us to:

• Assign a name to the macro.

By default, Excel assigns a name to the macro as:” Macro1”,” Macro2” and so on. However, we can keep the name as we desire. Keeping in mind that the name must begin with a letter or an underscore (_) not a number, spaces or special characters underscore is an exception though.

• Assign a keyboard shortcut to the macro.

It allows us to execute the macro by simply pressing the chosen key combination. The keyboard shortcut to be assigned is of the form “Ctrl + key combination” or “Ctrl + Shift + Letter”.

 

• Decide where to store the macro.

You can store the macro in the workbook you are working on (“This Workbook”), a new Excel file (“New Workbook”), or a personal macro workbook (“Personal Macro Workbook”). The default selection is to store the macro in the workbook you are working on. In this case, you are only able to use that macro when that particular workbook is open.

• Create a macro description.

Having a macro description is optional. However, it is a good idea to write the description as you will know what the particular macro is assigned for.

So the last thing is to press okay after filling all the details.

Step 4:

Perform the actions you want the macro to record and store.

Step 5:

Click on “Stop Recording” on the Developer tab or on the Stop Recording Macro button that appears on the left side of the Status Bar.

That’s it… It only takes 5 easy steps to record the macro.

 

Now you can always run a macro by clicking the Macros command on the Developer tab on the ribbon. Depending on how a macro is assigned to run, you might also be able to run it by pressing the combination shortcut key.

 

These tips will surely aid you in creating Macros on Microsoft Excel.

 

Wasn’t that easy? Microsoft Excel is all about some basic information and a lot of practice for which you need an expert to hold your hand to ensure you are heading on the right path. Click here to get the details on Microsoft Excel Basic to Advanced course.