Working with the VBA editor

VBA code is event driven. This means that an event needs to trigger the code to run. Code that runs in response to an event is called an event handler. To create an event handler, select an object from the object box and then select an event from the procedure/event box. Inside the event subroutine, enter the code that should run in response to the event.

You can also create procedures that can be called from event handlers. All procedures must start with a

Sub

or

Function

statement and end with

End Sub

or

End Function

. You can type the

Sub

and

End Sub

or

Function

and

End Function

statements directly into the code window or select

Procedure

from the

Insert

menu to open the

Add Procedure

dialog box. Using the

Insert/Procedure

options automatically inserts the statements into the code window.

The VBA editor provides code editing, navigation keys, and keyboard shortcuts in the code window. It also includes tools that complete keywords as you type (Intellisense), provide a list of options at each stage in building an expression, and verify syntax after you enter a line of code. You can turn these tools on in the

Options

dialog box of the

Tools

menu.

To display help on the VBA IDE, on the VBA menu click

Help

>

Microsoft Visual Basic For Applications Help

, or press

F1

in a dialog box.

By default, all procedures are Public. This means that they can be called from any procedure in the VBA project they are written in. For example, if you have inserted a VBA module into a VBA project and written procedures in it, as long as they are Public, you can call them from code you have written for the VBA project object. If a procedure is Private, you can only call it from other procedures in the same VBA project object or module.