Excel Macros for Dummies

Recording an Excel macro

From time to time our research team members run across posts that are so transparently bogus that they don't even rate a second glance. Take, for instance – and by "take," we mean "take to the trash" – eHow.com's Stephanie Ellen (sometimes known as S. Deviant) and her post, "How to Automate an Excel Spreadsheet." This post, now at ItStillWorks.com, is so... so... we don't know what! that it should have been published at a website that doesn't have "editors¹"!

Ellen's opening statement is... well, you could say that it's reasonably accurate:

"Microsoft Excel has macro functions which allow users to automate spreadsheets and avoid entering the same information over and over again. Whether formatting a document a particular way, entering a range of information, or producing the same chart types over and over, a macro can help you perform these tasks with the push of a button."

Yes, Excel macros let you do such things, thereby avoiding tedious repetition – though we'd have said "avoid entering the same steps" instead of "information." Macros also let you perform functions automatically, such as entering today's date. What they won't do, however, is what Stephanie says you're supposed to do:

1. Open the spreadsheet
2. Start recording a macro
3. "Format the document. For example, design a budget document, make a bar graph, or enter information you'd like to enter in other spreadsheets."
4. Stop recording and save.

Steps 1, 2, and 4 are just fine. It's step 3 that tripped our own bull-detector macro. "Format the document"? Shouldn't that be "Perform the steps you want to capture"? We mean, really, "design a budget document" entails a lot of steps; shouldn't you break that up a little? On the other hand, "make a bar graph" seems a perfectly reasonable task for a macro...

It's that last option that truly spreads the bushwa deep and wide, though: you see, the purpose of a macro is generally to streamline all the housekeeping tasks that come before you "enter information"! Macros aren't for entering information, Stephanie! And anyone who thinks they are is certainly a Dumbass of the Day!

¹ Not that eHow's content editors always edited for accuracy: all most of them did was make certain that the text met the in-house style guidelines. To hell with accuracy, they didn't understand that they were editing any more than the authors; sometimes even less.

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