Question

I have an Excel VBA macro which I need to run when accessing the file from a batch file, but not every time I open it (hence not using the open file event). Is there a way to run the macro from the command line or batch file? I’m not familiar with such a command.

Assume a Windows NT environment.

Answer 1

You can launch Excel, open the workbook and run the macro from a VBScript file.

Copy the code below into Notepad.

Update the ‘MyWorkbook.xls‘ and ‘MyMacro‘ parameters.

Save it with a vbs extension and run it.

Option Explicit

On Error Resume Next

ExcelMacroExample

Sub ExcelMacroExample() 

  Dim xlApp 
  Dim xlBook 

  Set xlApp = CreateObject("Excel.Application") 
  Set xlBook = xlApp.Workbooks.Open("C:\MyWorkbook.xls", 0, True) 
  xlApp.Run "MyMacro"
  xlApp.Quit 

  Set xlBook = Nothing 
  Set xlApp = Nothing 

End Sub 

The key line that runs the macro is:

xlApp.Run “MyMacro”