Excel Workbook as a Password Manager

[NekoRacing]

Dear All,

I consider myself a beginner in Excel, although I've used Excel for a long time.
I'd like to step up my game, and would like to use the opportunity to gain knowledge in Excel by incorporating it with my work in office.
I've searched extensively on the net before creating this thread, unfortunately I am unable to find what I am looking for. Maybe I am using the wrong keywords.

Would someone kindly guide me in the direction of creating an Excel Workbook which acts also as a Password Manager?
An ex-colleague of mine did it, however his Excel no longer works with the new version of Windows.
In his Excel he used many VBA Macros, I cannot run his Excel anymore.

As far as I remember, I could click on a button which opens up a form, that holds all usernames, password, websites.
We were able to create, store, and export.
As far as I know, no Microsoft Access was installed in the PCs, so I have no idea how he retrieved or stored the usernames and passwords.
You would not be able to see it in the Excel itself.
It was all stored in the forms section.

I would appreciate if someone could help out and direct me correctly so I would not be wasting my time looking at the wrong sources.
I'm not asking for codes, I'd appreciate some advice, how I can start building one.

Regards,
NekoRacing

 

[Joe4]

Welcome to the Board!

I would strongly discourage using Excel as a Password manager. Excel protection is very weak, and can be broken very easily with not a lot of effort. It would not satisfy any corporate security audits.

There are some very good free password manager programs which are free to download. I have used both "Password Safe" and "KeePass". Both are easy to use, and have some nice features.

 

[NekoRacing]

Well understood.

The Excel as a password manager is not meant to keep the passwords safe, instead we need it for easy access, and I plan to build the Excel tool and incorporate other functions as well.

Any opinions?

 

[Logit]

Here are links to three different learning levels concerning UserForms. How to create, what controls to place on the form, etc.

There are complete examples of small databases using UserForms on the internet. A "google" should locate them for you. You could
adapt an existing project to your needs.

Learning Lesson
Level

Easy :

Harder :

More Difficult : Create Excel UserForms For Data Entry In 6 Easy Steps: Tutorial And Practical Example

 

[NekoRacing]

Thank you for the information!

 

[Logit]

You are welcome.

 

[NekoRacing]

Once again thank you for the links.
I learned how to create the user forms.

I now realised creating a password keeper excel is not as easy as I thought it would be.
What I've learned is just creating the UI. I also found out now that learning VBA from scratch is very time consuming, however I would like to take on the challenge.

I've been following Guru99 Excel, but the tutorials aren't teaching me what I need.

How do I go around learning VBA for this password manager excel?
What kind of codes do I need to learn?
How do I hide all the passwords being stores in excel without showing them in the tabs or worksheets?
If there is no Microsoft Access installed in a PC, how do I create a database?

I don't want to just copy codes from the Net.
I really want to learn VBA by heart, then again it's too much, and I don't even know where I should begin.
How did you pros started out?

 

[Joe4]

I started out by taking a few day class at a local training center. Then I started experimenting with the Macro Recorder, which is a great tool for VBA noobies and pros alike. Simply turn on the Macro Recorder, and record yourself performing some actions, then stop the Recorder and view the code you recorded.

After that, I bought a VBA tutorial book and worked through it. And the rest I learned by asking questions here, and doing Google searches.

Unfortunately, it is not a "quick" process. There is a lot to learn, and it takes time.

One tip.
When asking specific questions here, don't try to ask too much in one single post. That will scare a lot of people off, or some people may be able to answer some of your questions, but not all of them, so they will be hesitant to respond. Break it up into smaller tasks/questions. If you have follow-up questions on an original question, just keep posting those to the same thread.

 

[Logit]

I became interested in VBA for personal reasons. One of my hobbies requires a log to track activities. I searched the internet for sample projects related to databases, entering/retrieving data, hiding sheets, printing reports and other things that would apply to my project. From there it was just plain old perseverance. Asking tons of questions on Forums like this and "trial and error".

Expect to make mistakes for a long time as you learn. You will learn from your errors. Find someone else's project that provides the source code and read it like an assembly manual. Come to understand
what each line of code is doing and why .... and how that applies to the rest of the project. Stealing a line from a movie ... Baby Steps. Take one step at a time and move forward.

My first project, the log, took me 10 months to learn enough VBA to finalize my project. BUT ... it encompasses numerous sheets and offers a long list of amenities to the user. A password manager project
is much smaller.

Two things that helped me immensely, once I realized them ....

#1 : All that Algebra you learned in HS and never thought would be necessary in real life. The processes involved in Algebraic equations can be found in VBA coding.

#2 : When searching the internet for a similar project to learn from .... don't overlook someone's project that has nothing to do with your goal. It is the smaller parts of each project
that matters. In your example, Password Manager, yes ... there are examples of that on the internet. Just do a search. But .... basically what you are building in a small database
that retains data and allows the user to retrieve individual data when needed. So in that context, ANY database project that does what you are seeking (entering / retrieving data)
can be referred to as an example.