No More VBA. ChatGPT to automates boring work with Office Scripts

Excel Office Scripts are the future of automation for Excel and other Office apps, replacing VBA and macros going forward. In this video I use ChatGPT to write an Office Script for me and the results are impressive!

📜OFFICE SCRIPTS LICENSING REQUIREMENTS
Office Scripts is available to Excel users with the following:

1. Excel for Windows (version 2210 or higher), Excel for Mac, or Excel on the web.

2. OneDrive for Business.

3. Any commercial or educational Microsoft 365 license with access to the Microsoft 365 Office desktop apps, such as:
• Office 365 Business or Business Premium
• Office 365 ProPlus or ProPlus for Devices
• Office 365 Enterprise E3 or E5
• Office 365 A3 or A5

4. Internet connectivity with connected experiences enabled.

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⏲ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 What are Office Scripts
0:52 Where to find Excel Script Tools
1:24 The Scenario
1:49 Using ChatGPT to write Office Scripts
3:07 Using the Script form ChatGPT
3:42 Running the Script
4:08 Handling Errors in ChatGPT Scripts
4:38 Re-using Scripts you Create
5:04 Assigning the Script to a Button

[jimfitch]

Once again, you Excel! I've loosely followed Office Scripts for a few years during which I've repeatedly resolved that I won't learn b/c I'm closer to retirement than my next job. At my age, I consciously try to avoid new shiny things & focus on savoring the old shiny things. To that end, I finally started writing VBA classes in the past year and (and!) just started creating customized ribbons. Woohoo! Now, along comes ChatGPT (itself a new shiny thing that I'm finding very useful for many applications) to make me chase a new shiny thing (Office Scripts), and along you come to encourage me to break my resolution. Ha! New shiny thing, you've been warned! Thank you, Mynda. Another fabulous tutorial. I look forward to seeing how much I can wring out of Office Scripts without actually having to learn it. 🙂

[HarpaAI]

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:

00:00 📎 Office Scripts are the future of automation for Excel and other Office apps, replacing VBA and macros.
00:29 📝 Office Scripts require JavaScript or TypeScript skills for manual editing or script creation.
02:05 💡 ChatGPT can be used to automate Excel tasks using Office Scripts by providing a clear and detailed prompt.
03:54 🧰 ChatGPT-generated Office Scripts can be easily added to the script gallery, making them reusable across workbooks.
05:17 ⏩ Once attached to a workbook, Office Scripts can be executed by users with edit access, saving time and streamlining tasks.

Made with HARPA AI

[mohammedelsakally]

Thank you Mynda! Your educational videos are extremely perfect.

[steven.h]

The younger spreadsheet up-comers sure have it easy 👍😎✊

[ShaunHerlihy]

An interesting experiment. Your version certainly worked beautifully.

When I entered exactly the same text as you. It came up with an answer containing bugs. Repeatedly listing these errors and regenerating an answer gave modifications, but after about eight iterations it ground to a halt and wouldn't provide anything new, or at least had the same bug.

The final answer it had got to also bore absolutely no resemblance to your final working code.

Think I'll stick to VBA for a while longer.

[graytonw]

I remember thinking they'd have to pry Lotus 123 and its macro language from my cold dead hands before I'd switch to Excel. Now, decades and countless Excel macros later, I feel almost the same way about leaving VBA for Office Scripts. VBA feels like an old friend, but I can see how it's limited compared to Scripts. I'm sure VBA will be around for some time yet, but you have to roll with the punches if you want to stay relevant.

[alexanderbaranov]

Thank you, Mynda. Highly informative as usual!

[VladimirKozomara]

Your tutorials are always usefull Mynda, thanks

[shawnward]

Love your videos and at same time get somewhat frustrated that I try to duplicate your work and seriously I can't get this to do like yours. Your teaching is amazing for sure and no doubt i have something in my excel that is not picking up the commands. My script type exactly as yours tells me I have 9 problems and 1 output error. Line 12: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'format') and all the problems are also exactly the same. It is interesting and I have had Chat GPT change the script a couple of times to try and address. Thank you for putting up the videos. Everyone is amazing

[vs_gaming]

I'd still write with my old VBA just because I know what I'm doing and how it works under the hood. Moreover, my brain works which is beneficial for me instead of copy pasting someone's code .

[davecope]

Thanks Mynda. But, MS need to make this feature available to

[heinzthedutch]

No more VBA?! This year I am "celebrating" my 40th anniversary as a BASIC coder since I started on my Commodore 64 back in 1984 as a little boy...
But it seems there's more advanced stuff available anno 2024 indeed ;-) Thanks for the tutorial! Greetings from the NL.

[josecarlosconejo]

I really like VBA, but Office Scripts is here to stay. I guess we should all start learning JavaScript at some point, but that’s ok. Life is a learning journey 😊

[dompedro]

Absolutely AWESOME - has helped me so much, Thanks Mynda !!

[miguelangelponce]

It reminds me of my use with the first automatic code generators for RPGs.
Now it is the same and improved for VBA, and so let's use it.
We do not want to rediscover the black thread. Let's ride the wave of knowledge with AI
A great video Mynda, greeting from Mexico

[notesfromleisa-land]

Excel for Windows (version 2210 or higher) should this be 2010 (in the notes). Thanks for introducing this feature.

[EngineerK]

This is so cool but it you still need an understanding of the api, especially if you are getting away from really basic tasks. On other platforms I have found ChatGPT invents its own api calls that don't actually exist so this is what will pull you into learning the api. It is super helpful for learning the language and you can also paste a code snippet and have it reverse
engineer it for you

[alanharris]

This sounds ideal for solving a problem I have with a one drive file which I will be using for a charity fundraising competition. I had recorded a macro and hadn't realized it won't work on line. I'm going to give it a go tomorrow. Will probably be a disaster with me doing it

[jerrydellasala]

I have a Microsoft 365 Family subscription (recently renewed), and I'm on the Beta Insider Edition of Excel, but I don't have the Automate tab in either Excel Desktop (Excel® for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2308 Build 16.0.16721.20000) 64-bit) or in Excel Web. Would you be able to provide a link to find out how I can get the feature, or does it require an "organizational" (School/Business) account?

[ivanbork]

Thanks Mynda

You are indeed a fantastic inspiration.