What it doesn't mention is the versatility and value the combination of VBA and the various MS Office applications brings to the table for small and medium businesses.
Translation: VBA, as a tools for SMB's, can make them money.
VBA is often discusses in terms of Excel. However, it is available --and very useful-- across the entire MS Office suite.
Over the years we have used VBA for applications ranging from engineering to business. From automated code generation (generate Verilog FPGA code based on easy-to-maintain data entered into Excel) to financial analysis and projections (example, Bass Diffusion Model product evaluation).
One of the most fun applications I remember was using VBA to create a training application for dealers and customers using PowerPoint. We created a full simulation of this device (control panel with buttons and an LCD display), using VBA to run the show. This was super easy to distribute to our dealers, required no installation and everyone could run it. Of course, today it would make more sense to build such a thing as a web app.
Still, VBA makes such things accessible to lots of people. You can use it with Excel, Word, Access, PowerPoint, etc. As a tool, it is useful and convenient. Most people could not care less about the, often pedantic, opinion us engineering types can have about such things.
As a software engineer I wish something like Python was a first-class citizen across the MS Office suite. I know they are slowly making this happen. I haven't looked into it for a while. It seems MS wants you to have a subscription to Office 360, which is a nonstarter as far as I am concerned. I could be wrong.
Good article.
What it doesn't mention is the versatility and value the combination of VBA and the various MS Office applications brings to the table for small and medium businesses.
Translation: VBA, as a tools for SMB's, can make them money.
VBA is often discusses in terms of Excel. However, it is available --and very useful-- across the entire MS Office suite.
Over the years we have used VBA for applications ranging from engineering to business. From automated code generation (generate Verilog FPGA code based on easy-to-maintain data entered into Excel) to financial analysis and projections (example, Bass Diffusion Model product evaluation).
One of the most fun applications I remember was using VBA to create a training application for dealers and customers using PowerPoint. We created a full simulation of this device (control panel with buttons and an LCD display), using VBA to run the show. This was super easy to distribute to our dealers, required no installation and everyone could run it. Of course, today it would make more sense to build such a thing as a web app.
Still, VBA makes such things accessible to lots of people. You can use it with Excel, Word, Access, PowerPoint, etc. As a tool, it is useful and convenient. Most people could not care less about the, often pedantic, opinion us engineering types can have about such things.
As a software engineer I wish something like Python was a first-class citizen across the MS Office suite. I know they are slowly making this happen. I haven't looked into it for a while. It seems MS wants you to have a subscription to Office 360, which is a nonstarter as far as I am concerned. I could be wrong.