AutoHotkey Community

Guest

i've been very satisfied with AHK so far.
i'm thinking of learning integrated scripting engine in Office called VBA
which is originally from the Visual Basic, unfortunately i don't know Visual Basic.
so i need to learn from the start line. but i can play with AHK at this moment.
does VBA real good for automating M$ Office applications? (especially excel)
can't AHK be alternative for VBA?
if AHK could be alternative for VBA. i won't learn it. cause M$ dropped Visual Basic.
if i should learn Visual Basic, i would pick up VS.NET (have no compatibility with VBA)
please tell me your experience.
Thanks.

even ahk is worse than VBA for using with MS office applications
i won't drop ahk. ahk for life Smile

TheIrishThug · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 347

I vote you take the plunge and go VBA. Things will be easier once you get the syntax down and getting a decent handle on that shouldn't take all that long.

Guest · Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 8:31 pm Post subject:

neXt · Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 367

Nothing too hard, if AHK is your first language, then you might get a bit confused with variable declarations and types, but after that it's a piece of cake. Object model is really easy in excel and if you are stuck you can visit VBAExpress forums, they are really great at helping nOobs. Have fun.

poetbox · Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 50

poetbox · Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 50

PhiLho · Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 4:48 pm Post subject:

poetbox · Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 50

edu · Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 86 Location: Canada

I have faced this same question for myself, and here is my opinions:
- Yes, it is better to learn VBA if you're more serious about automating MS Office and even making some money from such experience.
- I haven't had time to learn much about programming and it seems to me, from gathering info from different sources, Visual Basic is not rated as a super or ideal language to learn.
- Due to my little time to dedicate myself into learning any programing language, I have stuck with Autohotkey. And have been very happy in automating some repetitive task in MS Office, sparing me so many clicks and keypresses, mostly.
- I know that with JScript and VBScript -- both scripting languages for general purposes in automating Windows -- one can do quite a bit impressive stuff. And I remember posts about how to insert VBScript codes into AHK, and get the most of both. These scripting languages can really do a lot for the MS Office.
- My tendency, trying my common sense, would be to lean toward, JScript, which is a Javascript variation. So once you get used to that kind of syntax, which is closer to AHK than Visual Basic, it could also open up your mind to catching up on Javascript and Web programming.
- I have this goal of someday, gradually, learning python, which is a much more complete programming language than AHK, and which has had lots of praises about easiness to learn, productivity, etc. And yes, it can automate MS Office much easier than AHK.
Last, but not least. I'm very happy that AHK has helped me to overcome that fear that programming is not for me.

I hope this helps
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Guest · Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 1:15 pm Post subject:

Thanks for kindly answers

it's why i like this community as much as i like ahk.
all your answers were very helpful to me. especially edu.
thanks for sharing your knowledge, information, experience.
much appreciated.

and yes, ahk helped me to beat my prolonged fear of programming.
i failed on almost of programming languages. even on python.
but not for ahk

Guest · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 9:54 pm Post subject:

how about this

AutoHotkey+COM vs VBA?

though autohotkey can work with COM

is VBA still gets the winner position?