Recording a Macro

If you are not sure whether you have a personal.xls, you can let Excel record a macro in your personal.xls. If you don't have one then Excel will create a personal.xls workbook for you in the XLSTART directory which is in the same directory as you are running Excel.exe from.

From menu bar: Tools -> Macro -> Record New Macro
In the middle drop down choose "record to personal Macro workbook" which is your personal.xls, or if you just want macro available in the current workbook choose "This Workbook".
Supply a name, or accept the suggested name as "Macro1", then start the tasks or steps you want to record
Click on the stop button on the floating macro dialog box that is over your sheet, or use Tools-> Macro-> Stop Recording
Alt+F11, to get to the Visual Basic Editor
Ctrl+R, to bring up the Project Window
F7, brings up the Code
Ctrl+G, brings up the Immediate window
you usually would see the Project window (left), Code window (right), Immediate window (bottom) at the same time.
under VBAProject (personal.xls) or the name of your current workbook if you chose "This workbook" earlier - select Modules, then the highest numbered module, double click on the Module name (i.e. Module1)
You should see the macro you just recorded in the code window [see sample]

Use ready pre-written Macros

Instead of recording your own macro, install a macro from a newsgroup, or from a web page. Bring up VBE, within the Project Explorer select your project, which is your workbook name. You will install the provided macro in your workbook, or if you want the macro to always be accessible you would install in your personal.xls workbook.

If you do not see modules in your VBAProject (personal.xls) or another project workbook which you've selected, then invoke the menu Insert ->Module [see sample] or right-click on your VBAProject (personal.xls) in the Project Explorer [see sample]. The first module created in a project would be module1. You can rename it. You can put several macros in a module or create a new module for some addition macros.

Double-click on the selected module name. Copy code (Ctrl+C) from your source then paste (Ctrl+V) the code into a standard module that you just picked. Next, run your macro but keep in mind when you use a macro, you can not undo with Ctrl+Z the result that is done.

Run your Macro

Press Alt+F8, select the macro you installed and click the [Run] button.

Why my macro does not run?

Macros will not run if the security setting is set to High, Check under Tools -> Macro -> Security, set to Medium. If the security setting is set a High and you try to run macros in the workbook you will see the following message:
"The macros in the project are disabled. Please refer to the online help or documentation of the host application to determine how to enable macros".
Syntax errors will show up in Red and the macro will not run. This would be a frequent occurrence for macros copied from newsgroups where a statement got split between two lines and needs to be rejoined. Fix any syntax error.
In the VBE (Alt+F11) the Run Sub/UserForm, Break, and Reset buttons must all be dark blue (not grayed out). If the middle button is grayed out, you are in break mode from macro failure or a chosen break point (debugging) -- fix your macro errors and then press the Run button to continue, or the Reset button to allow starting over.
If the macro doesn't run at all, perhaps it is installed as the wrong type of macro. Standard macros are installed in Modules. Class macros such as Event macros are installed in Sheets, or in ThisWorkbook class module for Workbook Events.