Stepping Through a Macro with a Worksheet Visible

Summary: When developing a macro, it is often necessary to step through the various code lines so you can see what is happening on the worksheet. This is easy to do; just display the necessary windows on the screen at the same time. (This tip works with Microsoft Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, Excel 2003, and Excel 2007.)

Ted asked if there was a way to step through VBA code while viewing a worksheet, so he could view the effects on the worksheet as each step in his macro is executed.

This is actually quite easy to do—all that needs to be done is to arrange the Excel window and the VB Editor window so that both of them are visible at the same time. In other words, neither one of them should be "full screen." You can arrange the window sizes so that you maximize what you can see in your worksheet, and minimize what you see in the VB Editor—perhaps showing only a few lines of code in the window.

Another closely related approach is to make the Excel workbook full-screen, and then make the VB Editor window as small as possible, overlaying the Excel screen. With the VB Editor window active, you can step through the macro using F8 and view the results in the background, on the Excel workbook.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2061) applies to Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

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Stepping Through a Macro with a Worksheet Visible