Recording a Macro

I haven't used the Record a Macro feature recently, but found it was a great way to begin to learn the basics of VBA (pun intended). One thing that annoyed me is that it always seemed to generate VBA code that looked more or less like this:

<range>.SELECT
SELECTION.<action>

I would almost always shorten these sequences to <range>.<action>

For instance, instead of
Range("F54").Select
Selection.Font.Bold = True
generated by the Macro Recorder, I would use
Range("F54").Font.Bold = True

This is, in my opinion, not only easier to read and understand, but possibly also executes faster - because Selection could be a simple range of a single cell, or a "3-dimensional" selection across multiple tabs and including multiple areas on each, and so VBA interpreter has to wade through code that can handle all the possible cases. Writing it my way, the interpreter can see right away that the action is being taken on a simple range.

I don't know if this is significant for VBA, but in other interpreted languages I've worked with in the past that include a similar Select concept, it did matter.

Having said that, the way the Recorder shows it might be the more "honest" approach - recording clicking on a cell as a Select, separate from the action taken on the cell(s) so selected.

Raymond

Seems like you use a Mac. On windows there is a short-cut to save the document Ctrl + S, Ctrl + P to print and so on. If you use these shortcuts in your workbook then you will not be able to use them to save or print a file. The usual worokaround is to add the Shift to yhe short cut. e.g Ctrl + shift + S. Try these short cuts to make sure that Excel is nt usng them before they are apied to your workbook.

HTH

When I use the ctrl+ command I get an insert box that provides ways to shift cells. So that does not allow me to use a shortcut key to record a macro?

@JeanE

The macro recorder default to using absolute addresses, which is a nuisance as the majority of times, that I've used the recorder, I want relative addresses. Fortunately, this is easily enabled by slicking the "Use Relative References" in the ribbon on the 'Developer' tab or on older versions of Excel the Use RElative Reference button on the floating "Macro" recorder toolbar.
You can switch between absolute and relative as frequently as you like during the recording of the macro. E.g. I had a macro to go to the last entry in column A - in absolute mode go to the last cell in column A then switch relative to then use the [End} [UpArrow] to go to the last cell.

The steps mentioned to create a macro work great, but only on the cell the macro was recorded in. How do I make the macro run in any other cell in the workbook -- in other words, address free?