What is Beyond Excel?
Introduction
Beyond Excel is a free “cookbook approach” to extending Excel with VBA. Practical solutions are offered instead of abstract theory. Those desiring more theory and/or a VBA language reference are encouraged to seek out the many superior resources available for purchase or free on the internet. Links to some of those resources are provided inside.
Welcome
Welcome to Beyond Excel where free exchange of ideas is truly free.
Beyond Excel is about taking Excel beyond its traditional role and humble roots of a calculation worksheet. Wonderous things have been done with spreadsheets since the introduction of VisiCalc. back in the late 70's but even more became possible with the introduction of VBA.
VBA is a fulfledged programming language and it comes free with Microsoft Excel. That makes it an excellent learning tool for beginning programmers. But it's no lightweight. For the advanced developer, VBA and Excel can do just about anything any business language can. And because of its integration with the Microsoft Office suite, it can do many business related functions far easier than Java, or C (and all of its variants), or PHP, etc.
If a business is brave enough to embrace VBA, it will find office productivity can soar. In the decades I've been using VBA I've never seen a harmful incident involving it. But I have seen interactive analytical tools that provide termendous returns delivered in minutes that would otherwise take days or weeks to produce without VBA and Excel.