I’ve been treating Excel like a glorified calculator for most of my life. Sure, formulas made doing more complex calculations easier and automatically updated data, and there are free Excel templates that make complex tasks dead simple. But it was nothing compared to what I could do once I found VBA scripting.
If programming or scripting in general scares you, you don’t need to worry either. You don’t need to be a programming wizard to use VBA. Even knowing basic VBA can transform Excel from a tool you tolerate into something that actually works with you.
Why learning a little VBA goes a long way
Automations that make spreadsheets feel smarter
VBA comes in really handy if you often do repetitive tasks in Excel. Let’s say you’re working on a weekly report. Every week, you’d import data, reformat columns, create the same charts, check for errors, and send it out. This process can easily take a couple of hours and is exactly the kind of repetitive, mind-numbing work that can leave you exhausted before the week even starts.
Screenshot by Yadullah Abidi | No attribution required.
VBA or Visual Basic for Applications works by executing a sequence of commands called a macro. If you’ve used macros in other programs before, this is exactly the same concept.
You might think that writing code might be difficult, but Microsoft Office programs are built in a way that they expose objects that can receive instructions. For example, consider opening a document in Word, making a few changes, saving the document, and then closing it. In terms of VBA, Word exposes a document object and instructs it to carry out tasks like opening, editing, saving, and closing using VBA code. You can use the same concept to even send an email from an Excel spreadsheet.
The best part about using VBA in Excel is that you don’t have to write a single line of code if you don’t want to. Once you’ve got a couple of basic macros recorded, you can use them as templates and make small changes in the code with the help of AI tools or Microsoft’s VBA starter guide, and just edit what you need.
The simplest way to get started with VBA
How to write your first macro without breaking anything
Instead of writing VBA scripts from scratch, I’d recommend using the built-in macro recorder in Excel to generate VBA scripts that you can later customize if required. There are a couple of options to view and record macros in Excel, too. You can either use the View tab and click the Macro button to quickly record new macros and view previously recorded ones.
However, if you’re going to be writing or editing macros, you need the Developer tab. Follow these steps to enable it:
- Right-click anywhere on the ribbon menu and select Customize the ribbon.
- In the Customize Ribbon section, find and check the Developer option in the Main Tabs list.
Once the Developer section is enabled, you can use it to record new macros and view and edit existing ones. There’s also a Visual Basic button that opens the macro editor.
Screenshot uploaded by Yadullah Abidi | No attribution required.
From this point onwards, you can use the Record Macro button and start working in Excel as usual. Once done, stop the recording and inspect the macro file in the editor. VBA is quite easy to read, and you’ll quickly figure out how it interacts with Excel to grasp the basics.
VBA isn’t as intimidating as it looks
The syntax is easier than most coding languages
Learning basic VBA doesn’t require programming experience. Understanding some concepts like loops and conditional statements helps, for sure, but you don’t need that foundation to start. Excel’s macro recorder automatically generates the VBA code for you based on what you’re doing in the program, so you don’t have to even write code if you don’t want to. The generated code is also relatively easy to read and can be tweaked to get the final result you want.
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I would recommend spending a few weeks poking around with basic examples like copying data between sheets, formatting cells, and filtering data, among other tasks. Gemini 3’s vibe-coding tools can also help out if you’re feeling stuck or can’t understand anything. Before you know it, you’ll be writing macros you never thought to attempt manually because they would’ve been too tedious to justify the time investment.
Automations that pay off every single day
A few lines of code can save hours of repetitive work
Getting into VBA has elevated how I use Excel. I stopped seeing it as just a spreadsheet tool and started seeing it as a programming environment. Now, when I encounter tasks in Excel, my first instinct isn’t resignation; it’s curiosity about how I can automate it.
You don’t need to be a programmer to benefit from VBA; you just need to be willing to spend some time learning the basics and fiddling with examples. If you spend any meaningful amount of time in Excel, basic VBA scripting is one of those skills that pays dividends immediately and compounds over time. Remember, VBA isn’t some arcane programming language reserved for computer scientists. It’s just a way to tell Excel to remember what you did and repeat it perfectly every single time.
