Spreadsheets are infinitely flexible—especially in Excel, one of the most powerful spreadsheet apps. Most people use only a small percentage of their seemingly countless possibilities, however. Yet it doesn't take years of training to take advantage of spreadsheets' power and the automation magic of Excel macros.

Get mYou likely already use functions like =sum(A1:A5), the simple bits of text that add, average, and calculate your values. They're what make spreadsheets a powerful tool for crunching numbers and text. Macros are the next step: They're tools that automate simple tasks and help you get more done in less time. Here's how to unlock that new part of your Excel skill set by building your own macros in Excel.

Kasper Langmann is an Excel expert and co-founder of Spreadsheeto. This post was originally published in August 2016, but has been updated with additional tipsWhat Are Excel Macros?

Macros are code that automate work in a program—they let you add your own tiny features and enhancements to help you accomplish exactly what you need to do, quickly with just a click of abutton. In a spreadsheet tool like Excel, macros can be especially powerful. Hidden behind the normal user interface, they are more powerful than standard functions you enter into a cell (e.g.=IF(A2<100,100,A2)).

These macros make Excel work for you. They replace actions that you do manually—everything from formatting cells, copying values, and calculating totals. So with a few clicks you can quickly replace repetitive tasks.

To make these macros, you can simply record your actions in Excel to save them as repeatable steps or you can use Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), a simple programming language that's built into Microsoft Office. We'll show you how to use both below, as well as share examples of Excel macros to help you get starWhy Use Excel Macros?

Learning how to automate Excel is one of the easiest ways to speed up your work--especially because Excel is used in so many work processes. Say every week you export analytics data from your content management system (CMS) to create a report about your site. The only problem is, those data exports aren't always in an Excel-friendly format. They're messy and often include far more data than your report requires. This means you have to clean up empty rows, copy and paste data into the right place, and create your own charts to visualize data and make it print-friendly. All of these steps may take you hours to complete.

If there only was a way to press one button and let Excel do it for you in an instant… Well, can you guess what I’m about to say next?

There is!

All it requires is a little bit of time to set up a macro, and then that code can do the work for you automatically every time. It's not even as difficult as it sHow to Build Your First Excel Macro

You already know your way around Excel, and are familiar with its grid of cells where you enter your text and functions. To build Excel macros, though, you'll need an e

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