A macro could be described as a tiny program that uses visual basic to automate a sequence of actions or instructions. They can be quite simple, consisting of only a few tasks, or quite complex involving data manipulation and calculations. To create complex macros, you will probably have to learn a little bit of visual basic programming. But for simple Macros, you don’t have to do any programming at all.

Simple macros are great for any long sequence of keystrokes that you find yourself repeating often, or for combinations of basic Excel actions that would be convenient for a particular worksheet. Macros can be saved with the workbook in which they were created, or they can be saved in a separate macro workbook where they are more generally accessible.

The VBA code shown here was not typed by a programmer. It was created as a macro entirely by Excel.