•2 min read•from Microsoft Excel | Help & Support with your Formula, Macro, and VBA problems | A Reddit Community
how did you improve your workplace's legacy vba macros?
Our take
Transitioning to a non-clinical role in a public health care system can be challenging, especially when navigating legacy VBA macros with limited documentation. A cumbersome workflow, involving multiple steps from data extraction to running macros, can hinder productivity. As a newcomer, you might feel overwhelmed by the complexities of these tools. However, exploring alternatives like Office Scripts in TypeScript could streamline your processes, making them more manageable.
I recently transitioned to a non-clinical role in a public health care system. part of the on-boarding was a 12 page, 20 step tutorial on how to 'do the macros'. The workflow simplified is:
- Get source data from EHR/BI
- Open the excel online (microsoft 365) "Daily Review" workbook in the desktop ms excel. (hopes and prayers it doesn't crash)
- copy data (columns of patient ID, demographics, medications... you get the idea) from EHR, paste into this Daily Review
- run macro (click a button) which cleans, filters, applies conditional formatting i think
- save
- go back to excel online and resume editing there.
The VBA code was created (not sure if it was written coz it has no documentation) by a colleague who is on extended mat leave. I can see a lot of 'modules'. Can't tell which is active. There are probably lots of historical decisions.
The daily review file with its many many sheets is saved in multiple locations in case newcomers like me or others break it by accident. I am told we can't change anything like move a column closer to the beginning coz well we can't.
I don't know VBA but could probably figure it out if I watch a tutorial on it. I am linux user and know basics of C, python and make good use of my claude code with the pro subscription but never really worked with spreadsheets.
I am wondering if anyone was in a similar situation and how you managed it. Is moving to office scripts (typescript) a viable alternative? Any other life improving tips would be appreciate it. Or maybe I should just give up and focus the energy elsewhere?
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