Home » Tip Bank » Visual Basic » Visual Basic For Applications (vba)

Language: Visual Basic
Expertise: Beginner

Jul 29, 1997

Unlike templates in other Office 97 products, Word 97 templates provide a business-application engine that remains separate from the documents that use that engine. Template-based Excel workbooks and PowerPoint presentations include a copy of that engine. In practice, all Word documents consist of two VBA projects: the first project is from the underlying template (all Word documents are based on a template), and the second project belongs to the Word document itself. On the other hand, Excel workbooks and PowerPoint presentations based on a template have only one VBA project. Every file contains its own copy of the project in the original template. Changes made to this copy don't affect the underlying template. In Excel, PowerPoint, and Access, add-ins provide code engines that remain separate from the workbooks and presentations that use those engines. To create an Excel or PowerPoint add-in, use the Save As command on the File menu and save the file as a specific type: the "Add-in" type. Each product uses a specific "Add-in" extension (XLA for Excel, PPA for PowerPoint, and MDA for Access). There's no canonical location for storing add-ins, but to load add-ins automatically when you launch an Office product, store them in the XLStart folder or in the StartUp folder. You can load add-ins manually with the Add-ins command on the Tools menu, or you can automate the process in code. To create an Access add-in, use the command "Make MDE file" available through the Database Utilities command on the Tools menu.