Jump Starting Your Application

One of the most useful pairs of macros is

AUTO_OPEN and AUTO_CLOSE

Any macro with the name AUTO_OPEN will execute automatically whenever a worksheet is opened.

This means you can control the activities of the user as soon as your worksheet is loaded.

Similiarly you can name a macro AUTO_CLOSE.

This macro executes automatically whenever your worksheet is closed.

It is good housekeeping to ensure that any changes you make to the way Excel operates in the AUTO_OPEN macro are reversed in the AUTO_CLOSE macro.

Exercise

We will rename our 'Cleanup' macro as Auto_open.

Rename our 'Restore' macro as Auto_close

Save the worksheet and close it.

Reopen the worksheet to see the see the effects of AUTO_OPEN.

Excel should appear as follows:

In this example we simplified Excel appearence for an end user.

A more powerful application is to control how the user runs your application.

By causing AUTO_OPEN to run a series of Dialog Boxes you can force the user to interact with your application in the way you determine, thus reducing the scope for error.

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Practice Exercises

You should attempt exercise 13.1, 13.2 and 13.3

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