What do I do with macros sent to me by other newsgroup readers to help me out? 

I don't know how to install them and put them to use 

Article contributed by Dave Rado

Select Tools + Macro + Macros, where it says Macros in, select the template you want to store the macro in; where it says Macro name, type a name, and click Create.  You will see something like 

Sub MyMacroName()
'
' MyMacroName Macro
' Macro created 03/08/00 by Me'

End Sub

You can safely delete the lines in the middle, and add your own code, or paste in the code sent to you by others.  Then select File + Save to save the macro in your template.

You can run the macro while you are still in the macro-editing window (normally referred to as the VB Editor or VBE) by pressing F5.  You can also size the VBE and the Word window on your screen so you can see them both at once, and step through the macro one line at a time, in order to see what it does, by pressing F8.

To run the macro from within Word, you can press Alt+F8 (or select Tools + Macro + Macros), find the macro in the list, and press Run.

But if you are likely to want to run the macro regularly, you can assign it to a keyboard shortcut, or to a toolbar, or a menu. Or, depending on what name you give your macro, you can assign it to certain events – see:

Intercepting events like Save and Print

Running a macro automatically when Word starts or quits

Running a macro automatically when a document is created, opened or closed

See also Bill Coan's excellent articles Creating a macro with no programming experience using the recorder and Getting To Grips With VBA Basics In 15 Minutes.


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