Author Topic: Need ideas for a VBA training class ?  (Read 2300 times)

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hendie

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Need ideas for a VBA training class ?
« on: September 06, 2007, 02:42:39 PM »
I am coming over to the USA again in a few weeks and as part of my little ehmn sojourn I have been asked to give a training class on VBA.
It will probably take place over two afternoons. There will be a mix of people, process and production engineers, CAD users, and who knows what else in the pot. Their programming level is likely to be from Nil to made a macro in Word once.

I am having a difficult time trying to figure out a nice simple app that will be relevant to most users and hopefully be a little bit interesting.
With the mix of users and the fact that most of them will never have used CAD (and the PC's won't have it installed), I am keeping the vba training to something in Word and/or Excel

Anyone been in a similar situation ? any ideas welcome, also, comments on what you think is relevant for me to cover.
Given the limited amount of time I have I thought a very brief introduction to the object model and its purpose (15 or 20 minutes) then into some actual programming... but what ????

Arizona

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Re: Need ideas for a VBA training class ?
« Reply #1 on: September 06, 2007, 03:01:54 PM »
Perhaps a brief overview of the environment... stepping through a program, checking for values returned

David Hall

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Re: Need ideas for a VBA training class ?
« Reply #2 on: September 06, 2007, 03:09:19 PM »
Hendie, you might look thru the VBA Class area here on the swamp for ideas.  The class I was giving covered how to deal with layers, linetypes, draw a simple line, text, etc.  Jonesy might still have the syllabus I created for her
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hendie

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Re: Need ideas for a VBA training class ?
« Reply #3 on: September 06, 2007, 04:24:50 PM »
thanks guys but I am looking more for a small application or similar.
I only have a limited time with them so I think if they can go away after creating a small working program, it'll give them a good feeling.
I'll check out the VBA class area later when I have time

havano

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Re: Need ideas for a VBA training class ?
« Reply #4 on: September 06, 2007, 07:31:36 PM »
Maybe a parametric drawing routine and/or a recursive loop. A simple nesting routine for example.

E.g. a form where you can input the l/w/h values for 2 sheetmetal boxes, and the l and w values of the metal sheet you want to cut the blanks for those boxes out of. The recursive program must find and draw the optimum combination and positioning of box1 - box2 blanks on the sheet, so that there's a minimum of waste material.

Added later: Oops, I overlooked the absence of ACAD facilities and knowledge, mentioned in your first mail. Sorry!
« Last Edit: September 07, 2007, 12:28:26 PM by havano »

hendie

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Re: Need ideas for a VBA training class ?
« Reply #5 on: September 07, 2007, 03:25:34 AM »
an AutoCAD something or other would have been my first choice but the PC's in the training room will not have AutoCAD installed but will have MS Office, therefore I am limited to doing something in either Word or Excel.
the thing is that all my Word and Excel & Access vba is AutoCAD related somehow and I am struggling to think of something than everyone can get into that does not involve AutoCAD

hendie

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Re: Need ideas for a VBA training class ?
« Reply #6 on: September 07, 2007, 04:04:40 AM »
Hendie, you might look thru the VBA Class area here on the swamp for ideas. 
thanks CmdrDuh I had a look through but everything is AutoCAD related and nothing jumped out at me that I think I could use in this instance. The majority of users will never have seen (or need) AutoCAD so I have to stick with MS Office vba

At the moment all I have in the way of ideas is:
Notes/Text Importer: app similar to CAB's Notes routine but in Word ~ trouble is that this can be achieved pretty easily just by using MS Words AutoText tool
Design Request Form: a form designed to elicit specific information from the user and create a formatted design request document ~ either spitting out a text file or creating a formatted Word or Excel document

and after that, my brain goes numb  :|

Dnereb

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Re: Need ideas for a VBA training class ?
« Reply #7 on: September 07, 2007, 06:09:28 AM »
What abuot a simple user form based program to calculate material cost.

BTW I suspect you can find plenty of good example for teaching VBA in Excel, Word or Access on Fora specialized in Office.

hendie

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Re: Need ideas for a VBA training class ?
« Reply #8 on: September 07, 2007, 07:16:20 AM »
thanks for the idea... I had considered something similar but you can do that pretty much with standard formulas in Excel.


I don't know why I let myslef get roped in for this one   :cry:

Dave R

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Re: Need ideas for a VBA training class ?
« Reply #9 on: September 07, 2007, 08:10:50 AM »
How about a Word program that finds and replaces text defined within Bookmarks in the Footer of a multiple Word documents? You can have say 4 named bookmarks surrounding different parts of a Footer in the document and a userform attached to a button on a toolbar. The userform would have fields to enter the new text - maybe even a combobox containing some choices. The user enters the new text points the program to a folder containing a group of Word docs and the program steps through each doc, changes the appropriate text in the Footer of the doc, saves the doc and moves on to the next one until complete.

hendie

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Re: Need ideas for a VBA training class ?
« Reply #10 on: September 07, 2007, 10:06:32 AM »
I might try and build some of these ideas into one little app, so that the users are using vba to communicate between Word & Excel, thanks