Learning VBA: Where Should I Start?

Hi all,

I am interested in learning VB for the purposes of improving the efficiency of some computer tasks I do at work. I work for a contract testing lab and we do a lot of stuff in Word and Excel manually. I am pretty sure a lot of this stuff could be automated and made idiot-proof, and I want to learn what I need to know in order to program this stuff myself. I am looking for some advice on where to start and what particular VBA things I should focus on learning first.

Here's a a couple of examples of the kinds of things I want to do:

1) Lab schedule. We currently have a schedule for what experiments are being done at each station, but the list is cumbersome. I would like for this to be paired with a calendar such that either the list of the calendar can be updated and the other will mirror any changes. The calendar would preferably be Excel-based itself, since I don't want to get into synching with Outlook or anything.

2) Quoting. We currently have a simple Excel sheet for calculating the cost of experiments based on a variety of parameters. Then we manually edit a Word document to put all of that pricing information in. I am envisioning an Excel sheet that will guide a user through to process of adding the experiment parameters, will calculate the costs, and then automatically populate the Word document with the information. This could also be a separate VBA program that outputs the Word document.

I'm not asking for help with going about these projects (though suggestions are welcome). I am asking for some direction in how to get about learning this stuff. I am aiming to have these projects completed by the end of the summer, so it's not something I am planning on rushing through. My main goal is to learn VB, but I want to be learning things that are directly applicable to what I want to do first.

Thanks very much for your help!

Brian

I agree. Don't be afraid to ask questions but be as specific as possible and give examples. Your "quoting" process, as you describe it, appears to be something that could be done in one workbook without the need for VB or exporting data to Word.