You can use macros to automate manual tasks you do in Microsoft Excel. Using this feature you can complete repetitive and time consuming tasks in a few clicks. Even you can accomplish things which are practically impossible to do manually. For example , suppose you want to compare two sheets which are having more than 1 million rows of data. Doing this manually is not practical. But a macro can handle this task pretty easily. Also once you create a macro, you can use it indefinitely. Macros are developed using a programming language called VBA. If you know VBA, then you can create advanced and highly effective macros. However even if you don’t know the VBA, still you can create macros using the macro recorder feature. Check this post if you want to know how. Record a Macro in Excel
In this post I will show you how to run a macro step by step. Suppose you received a file which has a macro. If the developer has designed the interface or added controls like buttons to the worksheet then you can run the macros using those tools. But if no such option is available you can run any macro from the Developer tab.
So let’s look at how to run a macro from the Developer tab. First go to the Developer tab of the Excel ribbon.
“Developer” tab not visible in Excel? Learn how to enable the developer tab
Next click on the “Macros” icon.
Also you can use shortcut keys Alt + F8 instead of clicking the icon. Then the Macro window will appear like this.
There is only one macro name in this list. If your file contains multiple macros, then the Macro window will show all the available macros in the list. If there are multiple macros, you should select the macro you want to run from the list. Also you can use the dropdown to see the macros available in all open workbooks, in the current workbook or any other workbook.
After selecting the macro name from the list you can run it by clicking the “Run” button.