Macros are often overlooked in Microsoft 365 apps. They are available in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel and offer single-click solutions to cut down your repetitive tasks. If you are tired of performing the same actions repeatedly, explore macros to automate actions in your Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. Speaking of the latter, our goal today is to dive into how you can easily automate your Microsoft Excel workflow with macros on your laptop.

Excel macros defined

Before we go ahead and show you the steps to record and use macros in Excel, let’s have a quick word about this useful add-on. Macros are basically custom scripts that record your mouse clicks and keyboard strokes.

Suppose you go through a routine in most of your spreadsheets in Excel. Instead of repeating the same steps over and over again, you can create a macro of all the steps and perform the same with a single click only.

Microsoft 365 apps record your macros in Visual Basic for Application (VBA) language. You can record these tiny computer programs by yourself, and if you are a developer, you can tweak and write custom instructions in VBA to generate macros. Whether you want to format cells, generate reports, manipulate data, or create charts, you can use macros to complete such tasks with a single click.

You may need to spend some time creating macros, and if you are new to Excel, it does require a bit of a learning curve. However, once you make it past the initial stage, macros are quite easy to use and manage.

Tips for recording flawless Excel macros

When you enable a macro recorder in Excel, it captures all the clicks and keyboard inputs. We recommend planning your sequence in advance to avoid any mistakes during live recording. Otherwise, you will need to delete the macros and record everything from scratch.

For instance, when you run a wrong formula and undo it, Excel records your actions and performs the same when you run it. Follow our tips below to record glitch-free macros in Excel.

• Go through your action several times and try to memorize the sequences.
• Try using keyboard shortcuts for text editing functions.
• Don’t create a long macro with dozens of steps. Reduce the number of steps for better efficiency.
• Test your macros a couple of times before you hit the record button.

Popular examples of Excel macros

Here are some of the common tasks you can automate with macros in Microsoft Excel.

• Format cells or text: Macros can auto-format your Excel cells with specific font styles, colors, different effects, and more.
• Insert formulas: You can create macros to insert formulas in cells.
• Filter or sort data: You can record macros to filter specific data type in your Excel sheet. This can save a lot of time when you deal with hundreds of cells in your spreadsheet.
• Generate reports and charts: Thanks to macros, you no longer need to generate reports and charts manually. You can create macros and insert predefined tables and graphs in no time.
• Send emails: You can create a macro where the system sends a spreadsheet over an email to relevant recipients with a single click.

Record Microsoft Excel macros

There are a couple of ways to record macros in Microsoft Excel. You can either write it in VBA or record one from the View menu. The former is a complex method and requires programming language to get the job done. Most users should be completely fine with using the default option to record a macro. Follow the steps below.

Back in the day, the Macros option was a part of Developer options. The software giant now offers it under the View menu, and you no longer need to enable and use developer options in Excel in order to effectively record and use macros.

1. Launch Microsoft Excel and create a new worksheet or open an existing one.
2. Select View tab at the top and expand Macros in the top-right corner. Click Record Macro.
3. Give it a relevant name, assign a shortcut key to run a macro, store it in the current workbook (select Personal Macro Workbook if you plan to use it across your other Excel sheets), and enter a description for better differentiation. Click OK.
4. Go through all the clicks, tasks, and actions for your macro and record everything.
5. Expand the same and click Stop recording to finish the task. Excel saves your script.

That’s it. You have successfully created a macro in Microsoft Excel. You can follow the same steps to record several macros for your frequently used tasks and routines in Microsoft Excel.

Microsoft Excel saves your scripts in a temporary folder known as the Office cache in File Explorer. Microsoft plans to save your scripts to your OneDrive account in future versions of Excel.

Macro efficiency in action

To exemplify the true value of macros, I recorded a simple macro where I added the month names in the rows and inserted three columns: Marketing, Sales, and Extra. From now on, whenever I need to insert this frequently-used table content, I can simply run the macro I made from the top menu, as shown in the video below.

Manage Excel macros

At any point, you can edit your existing macro and delete irrelevant ones to simplify the macros list. Go through the steps below to manage your Excel macros like a pro.

1. Open the View menu and expand Macros. Select View Macros.
2. Select a macro and click Edit.
3. It opens the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications menu. You can tweak the code, make the necessary changes, and close the menu. You can delete a macro from the same menu.

Benefits of recording Excel macros

Are you still of two minds about using macros in Excel? Here are some of the advantages of recording macros in Excel.

• Productivity boost: Whether you are a power or casual Excel user, macros can help you save hours of work by automating frequent tasks.
• Level-up consistency: It delivers consistent formatting across all your Excel cells. It eliminates errors in an Excel worksheet.
• Endless possibilities: You have infinite possibilities with macros in Excel.
• Ease-of-use: You don’t need to be a programmer or a developer to use macros. The entire process is quite straightforward.

Automate your Excel tasks in no time

If you are new to macros, we hope you give it a try! If you are a power Excel user, you may already record macros based on your preferences and complete your complex spreadsheets in no time. If you want to cut down your work hours further in Excel, explore ChatGPT integration in Microsoft’s spreadsheet software. You can check our separate guide to learn how to use ChatGPT in Excel.