VBA Express Forum FAQ

VBA Express is a community of developers who help each other answer questions about programming in Microsoft Office.

VBA is Visual Basic for Applications. It is a "mini" version of Visual Basic, a programming language that many coders use to develop complete applications. VBA comes installed by default with the core components of Microsoft Office, including Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word. Other products, such as CorelDraw, AutoCad, and Visio support VBA too.

VBA can be used to develop "mini" applications to speed up or completely automate processes that you previously had to do manually. An example: You can use VBA to run 6 mail merges and have them automatically print to your printer just by opening a Word document that has been coded with VBA.

If you have never created a macro or used VBA, we urge you join us and learn about it now!

Anyone who wants to improve their efficiency, or someone else's efficiency, in using the applications that support VBA, such as Microsoft Office.

So you're no coder? That's okay! That's why we're here! Have you ever wished you could understand the code you've seen posted? Or wished you knew what to do with that code? That's our goal! We not only give you the code, we tell you exactly how to use it. And if you still have difficulty, with our code or your own, you can get free help!

If you don't want to code it yourself, you can post your project in our Job Postings forum!

If you are a coder, and want to help, we insist only that you treat the askers with dignity and respect. Condescension and egotistical attitudes will not be tolerated, and are considered grounds for suspension of membership.

You must become a member to see all of the forums we have available.

Visit the consulting page for more information on our professional development offering.

First, do a search to see if someone else has already asked a similar question. You may need to adapt the solution you find to your particular situation. If you are still stuck, create a new post and link to the thread you found so others can see what you have already tried.

Visit the forum and look for the appropriate place to ask your question. Click on the forum name, then click on the "New Post" button found at the top or bottom of the thread listing. It looks like this:



If you don't know which forum to use, ask here.

When posting a question, you should include:

• A meaningful subject line (not "please help" or "urgent I can't get this to work" or "Microsoft Office problem")


• A statement of your goal


• What you have already tried to reach that goal


• Your version of Microsoft Office and operating system


• Sample input data


• The expected outcome


• Before and after screenshots or data samples


• The exact text of error messages, if any

Don't be a victim of the XY Problem: tell us what your goal is. Many pseudo-problems are caused by focusing on the implementation rather than the goal. There may be a better way of reaching your goal, but if you don't tell us what your goal is, you won't get there.

And above all: be nice. After all, we are here to help you and are not being paid to do it.

When creating or replying to a post, do the following:

1. paste your VBA code into the text area
2. highlight (select) the code
3. click the # button
The button is found just above the text area where you write your question. This will automatically wrap the [CODE] tags around the selected code.

VBA tags make your code appear in your thread in the same way that you see it in your code pane in the Visual Basic Editor (VBE) window, thus making it far easier for others to read.

As an alternative, you may surround your code manually by writing "[CODE]" before your code, and "[/CODE]" after the code sample.

Please only post the relevant section(s) of your code. Don't post 50 lines of code if you only need help debugging one variable. Create a test case to demonstrate an issue.

If your problem has been solved in your thread, mark the thread "Solved" by going to the "Thread Tools" dropdown at the top of the thread. You might also consider rating the thread by going to the "Rate Thread" dropdown which is next to the "Thread Tools" dropdown.

This lets future site visitors with the same problem know that the thread contains a solution. It also rewards the volunteer(s) who helped you solve your problem. Remember that the forum is filled with unpaid volunteers helping you with your problem -- marking your thread as solved and/or rating it is the payment for their help.

Multiposting is the act of posting a single question to different forums around the same time.

We discourage multiposting because it is like calling five cab companies and going with the one that comes first -- it shows disrespect for the volunteers that monitor this forum because they will unknowingly be helping someone who may have already received help elsewhere. Their time is no less important than that of the person asking the question.

Many of the volunteers here visit multiple forums and can easily spot duplicate posts. Some of them may even reply to your posts with a link to your post on another forum. Don't be the person that gets caught.

If you must post your question on a different forum, include a link to the question you have already posted on the previous forum(s). That way, those helping you can decide for themselves if you are already receiving the help you need somewhere else.

If you are still confused, read A message to forum cross posters.

The forum is available 24/7, even when volunteers who answer questions may be asleep or at work. Give your post some time to sit in the queue. Please do not bump your post and do not post the same question more than once.

If you have waited a reasonable amount of time and no response is forthcoming, consider that you may have asked an unclear question. See "How do I post a question?" and edit your post to include information you may have left out.

You may have asked an overly broad question. VBA Express is for help with specific programming problems. Don't upload a workbook or a huge code sample and say "it doesn't work" and expect free help.

Not everyone is reading every single post sequentially. When you bump your own post by replying to it yourself, you remove it from the "unanswered" or "zero replies" queue that some people use to search for questions. Also, when a thread has replies (even if it is just you), it looks like someone has already replied, so others who might be able to help will stay away.

You must first be a member of our forum. Then, you can click here to submit your entry.

We strongly encourage our members to keep profile settings that allow them to be contacted via the forum's Private Messaging (PM) and email systems so that they can maintain communications about their code submissions, particularly within the first few months of submission.

At the bottom of every post there is a "Report Bad Post" button:

Use it to inform the moderators about a post that should be edited or deleted.

If you feel that someone has contributed a KB entry that infringes on yours or someone else's copyrighted code, we refer you to this government copyright reference: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ61.pdf

This government source indicates that copyright protection is not available for ideas, program logic, algorithms, systems, methods, concepts, or layouts.

While it is not necessary to register a copyright to receive copyright protection, it is required before an infringement suit may be filed in court.

Note that we are not talking about compiled applications, or even fully developed VBA applications--neither of which should be contributed to the KB in the first place. We are only referring to the VBA code itself.

If you still believe that someone has contributed a KB entry that infringes on yours or someone else's copyrighted code, please create a post here with the Title "Potential Copyright Infringement". In the body of the message, please provide a link to the KB entry, and a link to the code that you believe is being copied.

VBAX administrators will immediately address it and make a determination as to whether or not the Kb Entry needs to be changed or removed.

If you feel that the above is an unfair practice, please open a new thread in the same forum stating your grievance. We choose to deal with these issues openly, rather than in Private Messages, for the benefit of all.

A user will have a specific User Rank based on how many posts, Knowledge Base Entries, and Articles they have. Refer to the list below to see the requirements needed to obtain a specific rank. Note that your KB Entries and Articles are added together to get the total for the rank. So for example, to achieve the rank of VBAX Expert you would need 5 KB Entries and/or Articles total. You can have any combination of KB Entries or Articles to reach the requirement of 5.

A user will have a specific User Rank based on how many posts, Knowledge Base Entries, and Articles they have. Refer to the list below to see the requirements needed to obtain a specific rank.

Note that your KB Entries and Articles are added together to get the total for the rank. So for example, to achieve the rank of VBAX Expert you would need 5 KB Entries and/or Articles total. You can have any combination of KB Entries or
Articles to reach the requirement of 5.

User Rank	Minimum Posts	Minimum KB Entries + Articles
VBAX Visitor	0	0
VBAX Newbie	1	0
VBAX Regular	6	0
VBAX Contributor	100	1
VBAX Tutor	200	2
VBAX Mentor	300	3
VBAX Expert	500	5
VBAX Master	1000	10
VBAX Guru	2500	25
VBAX Wizard	5000	50
VBAX Sage	7500	75
VBAX Grand Master	10000	100

Visit your control panel to change options such as your signature, avatar, private messaging options and more.

Besides the forum, VBA Express offers VBA Training and a certification exam. Visit that page to find out what we offer.