Although I do have a niche, it’s not often you see job postings for Excel automation. Macros are built upon a language called Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). All Office applications offer macros; in Word, Excel, even Outlook! I remember when I built a macro to pull appointments from my Outlook calendar into an Excel worksheet for billing purposes – it was incredibly satisfying and saved me a ton of time. But in this day and age people don’t realize that this kind of automation exists, and most have concluded that the grind of manual sort-filter-copy-paste is just how it is supposed to be – the time people could be saving!

Deciding to take the plunge into Full Stack Javascript (not just backend or frontend, but ALL of it!) was a huge decision for me, part of that financial, but mostly skill-wise. Although I have had experience writing code in VBA with variables, for/while/do loops, arrays, and yes I even tried a class object once, the Excel environment is limiting. Take for example the fact that macros do not run on Excel-online. You have to download an Excel workbook to your desktop and open it to run macros. To show data from an Excel worksheet you have to convert it to an HTML page first, and then post it on a web server. Pulling data directly from an Excel workbook into a web application is not a simple task, requiring special tools. And I’m not saying Microsoft doesn’t have easy to access tools like this available to their customers – programs like Power Apps for building mobile/desktop web apps, or Power Automate for automating workflow tasks to name a few. Microsoft is on the ball and has provided a path for desktop users towards web development. But so far, I’ve only seen these tools used for internal processes. Do the math -> big companies need internal tools, and big companies also need tools for communicating with customers and business partners -> so why not just go with tools that can handle all of that. Makes sense.

After reading this some may think that my plunge into JavaScript was based purely upon necessity because macros have become, or are near to becoming, obsolete and that I will starve if I don’t make the switch. Seriously though, that is far from the truth. I have developed a clientele that are eager to hire me for Excel projects, and in many cases there is no better solution than Excel. So why am I doing this? Well, here is my answer. I can’t stand not knowing how the web ticks. It’s that simple. And, of course the benefits of having the knowledge I’m sure will be an eye-opener, but just to be able to code a web page dynamically, reach into a database across the world with an API, and load the data into objects and arrays – > morphing that into dynamically created pages is about the coolest thing I can think of. Everything else I will be learning is gravy! Javascript, React JS, Redux, Firebase, Wireframing, CSS, HTML, Postgre SQL, Mongo DB, AWS Cloud, Express, nodejs, MySQL, APIs… a life long dream has come true.

In the next post I’ll relate my first month of JavaScript learnings to VBA – however that’s possible. It’s like trying to compare pole fishing with net fishing? There are similarities, and I’ll try my best to share. Stay tuned.

I had always wanted to be a software developer, but it wasn’t until I started reading about JavaScript being a language that could handle both front-end and back-end development that I felt it was the right approach for me. And since JavaScript is extremely popular these days, it made it even easier to decide to take my Excel macro skills to the next level with JavaScript because I knew this language wasn’t going to become obsolete any time soon.

In this blog, I’ll be discussing topics that are general in nature, but probably will dive deep when it comes to interesting things I learn. I can’t help it :).

My Experience with Microsoft Excel

Since we all have different skill sets, so as to better understand my perspective in this blog, I am providing a list of my software work experience as a consultant and as an instructor.

• 25 years of Teaching Microsoft Office

• 15 year Excel Development (Visual Basic for Applications)

• 10 Years Access DB Developer for 10 years (Visual Basic for Applications)

• 2 years Microsoft Power Apps development – Canvas Apps

• 2 years Microsoft Power BI Reporting

• 1 year Tableau Reporting

• Other: Python Basics using xlWings, HTML / CSS Basics

How do I plan on becoming a Full Stack JavaScript Developer?

Youtube? Google? JavaScript websites?  Yes, yes, and yes. I tried all three, including Udemy courses. There is a ton of great information out there, and the idea of learning JavaScript for free sounded very appealing to me. But, as time passed, and my enthusiasm waned, I began to realize that this approach was not for me. You’ve heard of the saying “what you don’t know can’t hurt you!” Well, it’s not true when it comes to learning code. Like a house with a solid foundation won’t crack under pressure, I knew I needed a solid foundation of knowledge to draw upon without losing my mind. As an instructor of 25 years teaching Excel, I would tell my students “You can’t expect to understand ranges without first knowing about cells, because cells are the building blocks of ranges”. Or, “You can’t write macros without first knowing features of Excel”. This is just common sense.

As a “ship at sea”, I knew I would not make it by randomly sailing from one island of information to the next. I needed shipmates with experience to point me in the right direction, help me weather the storms, and make headway to finish my journey. I could tell this would be tough and would require shipmates that had the energy, inspiration, and the willingness to make the journey with me and, to not let me give up. I chose Clever Programmer, and I decided to go all the way with their “Full Stack Mastery” JavaScript Bootcamp. I’ve been in boot camp for just over one month and have concluded that this is one of the best career decisions I have ever made. In my next blog post, I’ll explain why.