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Where Are My Macros?

July 13, 2021 - by

Where Are My Macros?

Problem: Did Microsoft abandon the macro facility? Where are the buttons to record a new macro, run a macro, and so on? How do I get to the Visual Basic Editor?

Three macro commands appear on the far right side of the View tab: View Macros, Record Macro, and Use Relative References.
Figure 5. A subset of macro commands are available on the View tab.

Strategy: Most of the macro icons are hidden. Three macro options appear on the extreme right end of the View tab. You use the Macros dropdown to view macros, record a macro, or use relative references while recording a macro.

To access the rest of the macro functionality, you need to enable a hidden Developer ribbon tab. Choose File, Options, Customize Ribbon. Add a checkmark next to Developer. The Developer tab offers macro commands, buttons from the former Forms toolbar and Control Toolbox, and XML settings.

The full set of macro commands are available on the Developer tab in the Ribbon. When you customize the Ribbon, this tab is unselected by default. Add a checkbox next to Developer in order to add the tab to the Ribbon.
Figure 6. Microsoft disables the Developer tab by default.

The Developer tab offers Visual Basic Editor, the Macros dialog, Record Macro, Macro Security, and an Insert drop-down menu with Form Controls and ActiveX Controls.
Figure 7. If you use macros, enable the Developer tab.

Additional Details: When you are recording a macro, instead of seeing the Stop Recording icon floating above the Excel window, you now see it in the Status Bar, next to Ready.

The Stop Recording button appears just the right of the Ready indicator, in the bottom left corner of Excel.
Figure 8. Once you’ve recorded a macro, the Stop and Record buttons will appear next to Ready.

The same area of the status bar includes a Record Macro button when you are not recording a macro. However, because there is not a Relative References button, you cannot effectively record macros without using either the View tab or the Developer tab of the ribbon.

This article is an excerpt from Power Excel With MrExcel

Title photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash