Use Excel VBA to Create Buttons For Super Fast Data Input!
Use Excel VBA to Create Buttons For Super Fast Data Input!
How can we use Excel VBA to create buttons for super-fast data input?
Any Excel user spends a lot of time doing data input. So why don’t we talk about it more? More efficient data input could save us a lot of time … and frustration!
What are the basic data input options? The first and most commonly used option is to simply type data in. This is what you did when you first used Excel, and you still do it now … a lot! It can mean annoying mouse / keyboard work, and time and effort to fix spelling mistakes, and other errors. Are they any better options?
Video 1 – Introduction
A dropdown menu is a good idea. With a single mouse click we can view possible inputs and select one. It is certainly an improvement on keyboard inputs, but still requires some fairly precise movements to manipulate the dropdown menu, which creates cognitive load, or ‘stress’! In a work situation it could be a distraction from your job.
At this point, let’s consider a real-life example. A classroom teacher would want to record student attendance, and might wish to use Excel or another piece of software to do this. This is where the benefits of super-fast data input come into sharp focus. The classroom teacher has a million things to think about: starting the lesson, student queries, have the students done their homework? In this situation, multiple mouse clicks and keyboard work is frustrating; indeed, it might mean that the teacher gives up on the Excel file altogether!
We can use Excel VBA to create buttons for super-fast data input. This means that, rather than clicking around or using the keyboard, the teacher can make a single button click to input the required data. Moreover, mistakes can be quickly rectified by clicking the same button. With this level of usability, super-fast data input can make this kind of Excel-based tool a real asset to the classroom teacher.
How does it work? Well, multiple buttons are required. Anybody who has tried to create and manipulate multiple buttons in Excel knows that this can be onerous! There is nothing worse than copy / pasting and manually lining up shapes. With some basic coding ideas, however, we can dramatically speed up – and de-stress – the process. Watch the video series, work along in the download file, and learn the practical skills. Welcome to Excel VBA Beginners – Create Buttons for Super-Fast Data input!