VBA Editor | How to Open Visual Basic Editor in Excel?

Excel VBA Editor

VBA Editor is the platform to write and edit the VBA code and by default, it is hidden and to use it, we need to activate it. Visual Basic Editor (VBE) is a separate application for Microsoft products like Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.

How to Open Visual Basic Editor?

We can open VBE using 3 different ways.

#1 – Using Developer Tab

In order to open the editor, we can go to the Developer tab and click on Visual Basic Option as shown in the below picture.

#2 – Using Worksheet Tab

We can also open the Editor by using the Worksheet tab as well. To open this in the worksheet tab right-click on select view code.

#3 – Using Shortcut Key

Off all the three ways this is my favourite one, in fact, I don’t use the other two methods at all. To open Editor Window press the shortcut excel key ALT + F11.

This is toggle shortcut when you press it appears and if you press it again it will take back you to the active workbook.

Visual Basic Editor Window

If you are looking at the VBA window for the first time then it looks intimidating because of a completely new option and features you are seeing for the first time. When you look at the window it has a retro look. Even though various new designs replaced the excel visibility Visual Basic still has its retro look from the beginning.

To open the editor window you can use any of the above three methods explained, I always use the shortcut key ALT + F11 to open the window.

We usually see 4 parts in Visual Basic Editor Window, below is the detailed explanation of the same.

Menu Bar: Like how excel has menu ribbon similarly Visual Basic too has its own Menu Bar. It has all the available things in VBA. You can do settings, insert modules, toolbars, etc.

Tool Bar: In the toolbar section we can save, we can head back to excel worksheet, we can redo, undo, run the macro, stop the macro, etc.

Project Window: It is always on the left side of the editor. It has a Workbook name, worksheet name, and modules.

Properties Window: Properties window is associated with Project Window. Here we can change the sheet name, we can change the module name, etc.. If you don’t see this window by default press F4 to activate it.

It is a floating window, we can move anywhere within the window. Using this window we can change all the properties of the selected object.

How to use VBA Editor?

Example #1 – Adding Modules in Editor

We write all the macro codes inside the module. By default you don’t get to see the module, first, we need to insert the module.

Go to Insert > Module.

As soon as you click on Module you can see the newly created module just under the worksheet Project tool.

As soon as you insert the module you can see the white blank window on the right-hand side and it is called “Code Window”. In this window, we write all the codes.

This is the basic and much-needed introduction to the Visual Basic Editor (VBE).

Note: If you don’t see all the options at the first go nothing to panic here because you can enable and disable it at any point in time under View menu.

Example #2 – Working with Properties Window

One simple introduction you need here is how to work with “Properties Window”. Using this properties window we can change the properties of the objects here.

For example, if you want to change the name of the worksheet you can change here.

Similarly, you can change the module name as well.

This is the general overview of the Visual Basic Editor window. The more you use it, you will slowly get to know the window.