Using M essage Boxes and Input
Boxes in Excel VBA
Microsoft Office Training
Excel Training
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• If you want to make your macros interactive
then one way of doing this is to introduce
message boxes and input boxes. These allow
you to display messages that require a
response or ask the user to enter values
before the macro can proceed any further.
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S imple g re e ting us ing a me s s ag e bo x
• Create an empty workbook and the switch to
the Visual Basic Editor (VBE) by clicking Tools
> Macro > Visual Basic Editor or by using the
shortcut key ALT F11.
• If you are using Excel 2007 click on the
Developer ribbon and then click on the Visual
Basic button.
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• Once in the VBE environment you will need to
create a module to hold your function. Click
Insert > Module In the code window enter the
following procedure
Sub Greeting()
MsgBox "Welcome to my spreadsheet"
End Sub
• Press F5 to run the macro
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Pas s ing a variable to a me s s ag e bo x
• In the same procedure as above we will create an input box
variable called MyName and declare the variable as a string.
We will then concatenate the message “Welcome to my
spreadsheet” with the value in the MyName variable. This
joins the message in the message box with a value the user
enters in an input box.
Sub Greeting()
Dim MyName As String
MyName = InputBox("What's your name?")
MsgBox "Hi There " & MyName & "."
End Sub
• Press F5 to run the macro
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Adding mo re info rmatio n to a me s s ag e bo x
• Now we are going to use Date, Time and CurDir
functions to add more information to our message
box. Adjust your code as shown below.
Sub Greeting()
Dim MyName As String
MyName = InputBox("What's your name?")
MsgBox "Hi There " & MyName & ". Today's date is " &
Date & " and the time is " & Time & ". This file is saved
in " & CurDir & "."
End Sub
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• See this Excel training tutorial on the Blue
Pecan website
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