Those who want to learn VBA—Visual Basic for Applications—are in luck: Jason Davidson ’01, an instructor in the Lacy School of Business, has written a new book on the popular programming language that is used to create and customize Microsoft Office programs.
VBA for Microsoft Office 2016, published by Pearson, is a 216-page, step-by-step guide that’s geared toward students, though professionals can use it too—and do.

“Think of it as an introduction to VBA for someone who’s never done anything with it,” Davidson said. “The book starts with what is it, what does it do, how does it work. By the end, it walks you through how to use it with database programs, so you can use it with Access. You can use it to automate databases, you can use it to automate spreadsheets in Excel, things like that.”

Davidson said VBA is a versatile program that’s frequently used for things like automating calculations for mortgages or car payments. It also can be used in business analytics jobs where the user is working in Excel, Word, or PowerPoint.

“VBA can be used with quite a bit,” he said.

Davidson teaches Advanced Web Design, Data Networks, Data Analysis and Business Modeling, and introductory Management Information Systems courses, and he’ll use the new book in his Data Analytics and Business Modeling course.

The 2016 edition is the second version of this book, Davidson said. He co-authored the first edition, and also co-wrote a new book on using Microsoft Excel that was published in late 2016. This is the first book he wrote on his own.

“I’m excited that this is the first one I’ve done by myself,” he said. “I have worked a lot as a coauthor, but this is my first solo publication.”

 

Media contact:
Marc Allan
mallan@butler.edu
317-940-9822