Excel for the web (aka Excel Online) now has scripting functionality akin to VBA! We are in the early stages of this new scripting language, however, if you would like to get a head start in learning this new language to automate tasks on Microsoft’s online Apps (this does not work for Desktop apps…for now), you may be able to convince your Admin to turn on this new feature. The code editor and script recorder are located on the Automate tab in Excel which is hidden by default. The following brief tutorial will show admins how to enable this feature.
Who Can Use This?
This feature is in preview and only available to users in E3 Tenants and E5 Tenants that have had their admin enable Scripts for Excel Online.
Accessing the Admin Center
To access the Admin Center on Office 365 you will need to log into Office.com and select the Admin App on your dashboard. If you do not see the Admin App, you can click the right arrow icon to view all your apps. In the event you cannot find the Admin App after viewing all your apps, chances are you do not have Admin rights.
Open Admin Settings
Once you’ve clicked the Admin App, you should be taken to a new webpage with a pane menu on the left-hand side. You will need to select Settings > Settings. If you do not see an Settings menu option, you may need to click the Show All option at the very bottom of the listing.
Open Office Scripts Settings
After you have navigated to the Settings section, ensure you are in the Services part of the settings and click the Office Scripts option.
Enable Office Scripts
After opening the Office Scripts Settings, you should see a pane to the right of your screen. You should see a checkbox option similar to below that will allow you to enable Office Scripts.
Access Office Scripts
After Office Scripts have been enabled by your Office Admin, you can refresh Excel Online (you may need to close out of it completely) and after reopening, you should see a new tab in your Ribbon called Automate. There will most likely be more button residing in this tab in the future, but for now you have access to a Script Recorder (online version of the Macro Recorder) and a Code Editor pane.
For more information on what all Scripts can do, check out the Microsoft documentation.
I Hope This Helped!
Hopefully, I was able to explain how you can enable this new feature for Excel Online. While scripting is still a work in process, there is a lot of automation you can carryout within Excel and in combination with Power Automations to automate your cloud activity. If you have any questions about this technique or suggestions on how to improve it, please let me know in the comments section below.
About The Author
Hey there! I’m Chris and I run TheSpreadsheetGuru website in my spare time. By day, I’m actually a finance professional who relies on Microsoft Excel quite heavily in the corporate world. I love taking the things I learn in the “real world” and sharing them with everyone here on this site so that you too can become a spreadsheet guru at your company.
Through my years in the corporate world, I’ve been able to pick up on opportunities to make working with Excel better and have built a variety of Excel add-ins, from inserting tickmark symbols to automating copy/pasting from Excel to PowerPoint. If you’d like to keep up to date with the latest Excel news and directly get emailed the most meaningful Excel tips I’ve learned over the years, you can sign up for my free newsletters. I hope I was able to provide you some value today and hope to see you back here soon! - Chris