Help with recording a macro inside and outside of Excel

**blakrapter** · 01-26-2011, 01:18 PM

Hey guys!

Ok, I know this is not technically an Excel macro question, but you guys know a lot about Excel and the Windows OS. I would like to know if there is a built in Windows function, or one I can add, that will allow me to record a macro like I can in Excel. Here is the deal:

I have a large Excel file that contains a macro to sort, re-format, etc a lot of data (about 20,000 lines) into a usable format to upload to my server. The macro within Excel is great, but I still have to "prep" all of the linked data by making sure all of the files Excel is pulling information from are up to date. I do this by downloading the latest information daily from the various sources. Some of these sources are websites, others are FTP sites. Once the data files are up to date on my computer, Excel and the macro take care of looking up all of the information and reformating it for me. I then have to "save as" to a CSV file and upload it to my server (server requires CSV) via a web based administration panel.

It is a very repetative process that seems perfect for a macro. However, the macro will need to control Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer, Excel, and possibly an FTP Client such as Filezilla. I did a quick Google search and found several programs claiming to allow me to "record" a macro like Excel allows, but I wanted to get your opinions first as I am by no means a programmer. What would you recommend?

Thanks!

**royUK** · 01-26-2011, 02:24 PM

Search the internet, there's programs to do this

**blakrapter** · 01-26-2011, 03:55 PM

Roy,

Thanks for the quick reply! Are there any that you have used or would recommend? I found quite a few, so I was trying to narrow down my choices some.

Thanks!