Office Scripts vs Excel VBA (Everything you need to know)

Office Scripts vs Excel VBA (Everything you need to know)

In this video I explain the brand new Office Scripts for Excel. Office Scripts is Microsoft's proposed replacement for VBA and it's currently available in preview mode. Office Scripts uses the programming language TypeScript.

I also explain the background to Office scripts and discuss if it will replace VBA and will VBA become obsolete.

Then I show how to use Office Scripts with office online and with any version of Excel from 2013 onwards.

Finally we get to the best part! A Task where we compare VBA Code with TypeScript code. I think you will agree that TypeScript is a game-changer.



Excel VBA Training

Free Excel VBA Resources

Useful VBA Shortcut Keys
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Search keyword under cursor: Ctrl + F3
Search the word last searched for: F3
Compile the code: Alt + D + C OR Alt + D + Enter
Run the code from the current sub: F5
Step into the code line by line: F8
Add a breakpoint to pause the code: F9(or click left margin)
View the Immediate Window: Ctrl + G
View the Watch Window: Alt + V + H
Auto complete word: Ctrl + Space

Get the definition of the item under the cursor: Shift + F2
Go to the last cursor position: Ctrl + Shift + F2
Switch between Excel and the VBA Editor: Alt + F11
View the Project Explorer Window: Ctrl + R
Get the current region on a worksheet: Ctrl + Shift + 8(or Ctrl + *)
To move lines of code to the right(Indent): Tab
To move lines of code to the left(Outdent): Shift + Tab
Delete a Line: Ctrl + Y
View the Properties Window: F4

[grahamparker]

Not sure how I’d get on with Office Scripts. Perhaps I’m a bit too comfortable with good old VBA.

[tuyoexcelypowerbi]

Welcome to this new world, I have been experimenting with Script Lab, Office Scripts, VS, VSC, Node.js Yeoman... during last 10 months and it´s amazing!!!!

[sebastiansalazar]

Great, Great. You summarize many hours of study, which encourages me to try Office Scripts. Thank you very much indeed.

[dontown]

I learned COBOL in 1971 using a Honeywell 200 mainframe with 32K memory!

[thearchibaldtuttle]

Haha, was a Cobol programmer in the 90's. Good language that get's the job done! Don't listen to those who try to bad mouth it. Probably those who wrote all the shitty code that I had to fix.

Great to see that Microsoft is moving on and offers Office Scripts now. Office Scripts aka TypeScipt is so popular already in the web development area, you can benefit from all the available knowledge there! Furthermore it increases the possibility to use Excel as calculation engine in the background and integrate it with Web applications etc.! Exciting opportunities!

[KT-zhxg]

Very good introduction to Office Scripts, in comparison with VBA

[majolakrem]

Can you please discuss/ compare execution speeds, efficiency, etc. in an upcoming video?

[wayneedmondson]

Hi Paul.. thanks for the look into TypeScript. I hope for a long life remaining for VBA.. but always interested in new technologies. As you demonstrated.. some things will be easier.. maybe some things harder. It's a brave new world in more ways than one. I'm sure with some effort and the good instruction available at your channel, your web site and your courses, we'll all get the hang of if eventually. I guess you'll have to change your name to.. Excel Macro and TypeScript Mastery.. haha!! Thanks again and looking forward to more insights into TypeScript. Thumbs up!!

[jeanpaulbaka]

Great. Last I did VBA software for a client and he wanted to use also in his Mac. Now with Typescript, all those limitations will be over.

[Hackybaby]

It´s so true, I am an Engineer and use VBA; but what is spectacular is that I just learned how to really really really nicely programm stuff that is a huge mess in my code. A COLLECTION!?

[goombakiwi]

I see its importance with companies storing workbooks on the cloud (ie SharePoint). I however fear that those same companies IT departments will not allow the administrative access to manipulate online files. This is one of the factors that stopped Python libraries from taking off, as third party downloads are restricted.

VBA becomes one of the few tools I can use to automate my work. I've even done a little Acrojavascript with pdfs. I see the benefit of having the skills and knowledge to do this. But it's like being hired as someone that knows how to operate a digger and being told your only allowed to use a garden spade. :-(

[adamwstbrook]

I am eager to learn more! My organization has most people on Excel online, so being able to automate things in the online version would be amazing!

[glenwolfgram]

Great introduction to typescript working with excel. I’m looking forward to working with typescript to find new methods for moving data in and out of excel worksheets with json objects then are available in native VBA.

[Excelmacromastery]

IMPORTANT: Office Scripts were updated after this video was released. One big change was that synchronous calls were made available. This makes quite a difference to how scripts are written. The newer Office Scripts API is not available through Script Lab.

PLEASE SEE THESE VIDEOS FOR MORE UP TO DATE INFORMATION ABOUT OFFICE SCRIPTS:


I hope you enjoy this video on office scripts. Let me know what you think of Office Scripts in the comments below.

[eiger]

Hi Paul, thx very much to covering this argument, would be nice if you consider to make a serie of videos about this.

[wandyezj]

Great Tutorial! I'm a Developer of Office Scripts, and I learned a lot from this video.

[MrVurtan]

I like the approach to integrated Typescript in Excel. Currently I have my Typescript with Angular for a website project and you can do a lot with it.
Just image to build your UI in HTML/CSS and even add packages like Angular or other stuff. That could be amazing in the end.

[davidlbedford]

A modern platform for Excel. Awesome. Looking forward to your Office Scripts handbook!

[philipmcdonnell]

I‘ve been waiting for TypeScript vids to emerge. This is where I want to go.

[thofiktufel]

You are a great tutor!
Can you please upload the Advanced filter webinar in YouTube? That's very useful. Like how you did arrays.
Thank you!