Placing an UDF

Y

yshridhar

I have an User Defined Function sent by EXCEL group. Where shall i place
this to use it as a normal worksheet function in any excel file i open. eg
like SUM, AVERAGE?
Thanks
Sridhar
 
T

T. Valko

To make a UDF available to all workbooks you have to store it in a special
file called Personal.xls.

Personal.xls is a hidden file that opens wth Excel.

If you do not already have a Personal.xls file then you'll have to create
it.

Start Excel
It opens with the default file name of Book1
Hit ALT F11, this will open the VB editor
Hit CTRL R, this will open the project explorer pane on the left side of the
window
Look for VBAProject(Book1) in the explorer pane
Select it, then right click
Select Insert>Module
Paste your UDF code in the window that opens on the right
Hit ALT Q to return to Excel
Now, save the file and name it Personal.xls. You have to save the file to a
special directory named XLStart. I'm using Windows XP with Excel 2002. The
path to my XLStart directory is:

C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLStart

Yours may be different but you need to find the XLStart directory and save
the file to that location.

Then, when you want to use the UDF in any workbook you call it like this:

=Personal.xls!your_function_name(...)

For example, suppose the function name is FindAll:

=Personal.xls!FindAll(...)

You have to replace the "..." with any arguments your function may take.
 
J

JE McGimpsey

Note that you don't have to store it in a file called Personal.xls.

There's NOTHING special about 'Personal.xls', except that it's the
default name that XL uses in the Record Macro dialog (for WinXL, MacXL
defaults to 'Personal Macro Workbook').

You can store it in a file with ANY name that's placed in your Startup
folder (with the window hidden, if desired, as XL creates Personal.xls).
Use the filename as a prefix to the UDF name.

OR you can save the file with the UDF as an Add-in, and you don't need
the filename prefix when the add-in is loaded (either through the
Tools/Add-ins menu, or just store the Add-in in your startup folder).
 
T

T. Valko

There's NOTHING special about 'Personal.xls', except
that it's the default name that XL uses in the Record Macro
dialog (for WinXL, MacXL defaults to 'Personal Macro Workbook').
Click to expand...

Which is why I explained it the way that I did.
 
Y

yshridhar

Thanks alot Mr. Biff for your detailed explanation. But i a facing a
problem. When i open excel the personal.xls is also opening in another
window. How to hide it? How to store this UDF as an ADDIN
Sridhar
 
T

T. Valko

Select the window with Personal.xls
Goto the menu Window and select Hide.
When you close Excel you should get a message asking if you want to save
changes made to Personl.xls. Answer with Yes.
 
T

T. Valko

Sorry, I didn't answer your other question:
How to store this UDF as an ADDIN
Click to expand...

Basically, it's the same process but you give the file a different file
extension and you save it to a different location. Although you can save it
to other locations MS has a location just for add-ins. Notice I didn't use
the words have to or special. I don't want to argue about semantics with
anyone!

I'll describe the procedure from the very beginning.

Start Excel
It opens with the default file name of Book1
Hit ALT F11, this will open the VB editor
Hit CTRL R, this will open the project explorer pane on the left side of the
window
Look for VBAProject(Book1) in the explorer pane
Select it, then right click
Select Insert>Module
Paste your UDF code in the window that opens on the right
Hit ALT Q to return to Excel
Now, save the file and name it Personal.xla. You should save the file to the
directory named AddIns. I'm using Windows XP with Excel 2002. The
path to my AddIns directory is:

C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Microsoft\AddIns

Now close Excel. Wait a minute or two then reopen Excel.
You need to load the add-in
Goto the menu Tools>>Add-Ins
You should see the Personal.xla file listed.
Select Personal.xla then click OK
You should be good to go!

Now, you can use this function just like any other function:

=MyFunction(...)
 
Y

yshridhar

Thanks alot Mr. Biff for your elaborate explanations. What we want is that
to clear our doubts and resolve our problems. Thanks alot again for your
EXCELlent suggestion and explanations.
With regards
Sridhar
 
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