Excel Developer Tab

Excel Developer Tab (Table of Contents)

• Developer Tab in Excel
• How to Add the Developer Tab in the Excel Ribbon?
• Developer Tab Sections & its Uses

Introduction to Developer Tab in Excel

Developer Tab in Excel is used for accessing function and tools which are used in creating the macros. If the Developer tab is not available in the menu bar, then enable it File menu’s Option. From the Customize Ribbon tab, add the Developer tab from recommended commands to the Customized commands list. Once we do that, we will be able to see Developer menu tab in the Menu bar, which has Visual Basic, Macros, Add-Ins and Controls mainly. We can use Visual Basic to write a macro code.

How to Add the Developer Tab in the Excel Ribbon?

The developer tab in Excel helps create a macro, import and export XML files, or insert a form or active controls.

Some of the version doesn’t show the Developer tab in excel by default, so you’ll need to add it.

The developer tab in excel will not be visible unless you activate it from the options menu. To activate the Developer tab in Excel, follow the below-mentioned steps.

Step 1: First, click on the File button on the top left-hand corner of the screen and then click on the “Options” button on the bottom left-hand corner of the screen.

Or

You can Right-click anywhere on the Excel ribbon and then click Customize the Ribbon.

Step 2: ‘Excel Options’ window appears; click on the ‘Customize Ribbon’ button located in the list of options on the left side of the Excel Options window.

Step 3: Now, you can find the ‘Developer’ option under ‘Main Tabs’, and you can tick or check the box beside it. Once it is done, click on the ‘OK’ button at the bottom right-hand corner of the Excel Options window.

Step 4: Now, you can observe the Developer tab is added in Excel Ribbon.

Developer Tab Sections & its Uses

Developer tab in excel consists of four sections (Below mentioned black color marked boxes)

Let’s check out the various Sections of the developer tab in excel.

1. Code

Excel supports basic programming to create powerful scripts and actions in Excel with Visual Basic and Excel Macro options where you can create, record, and edit macros which can automate your repetitive or manual tasks in Office applications.

2. Add-ins

Add-ins in excel are added to get additional or extra features, functionalities, and commands in your workbooks.

Default add-ins are not available immediately in Excel; when it is required, it has to be installed first and activate to use it.

A few of them are inbuilt, which is available in excel, which is Solver, and the Analysis Toolpak, which can be added or removed through add-ins in excel options.

There are various types of add-ins, i.e. Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) add-ins, Component Object Model (COM) add-ins, and DLL add-ins.

Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) add-ins Component Object Model (COM) add-ins is usually developed or designed by developers and solution providers.

3. Controls: Form Controls & ActiveX Controls.

There are two different kinds of Controls in the Excel spreadsheet, which is mostly similar, but the appearance varies between them, i.e. Form Controls & ActiveX Controls.

Both of them are used on worksheet forms.

Form Controls options are simple & easy to use in excel itself to create, whereas ActiveX control is slightly advanced, provides a more flexible design which is most commonly used in Excel VBA, where it appears or shows up as objects that you can use in your code.

There are 11 types of Controls in the developer tab in excel.

• Check Box:

It is also called a checkmark box or tick box or selection box, where it controls the display of checkmark when it is selected. it is a little square shape where you can select or deselect a given option

e.g. True/False or Yes/No in opinion polls.

• Command Button:

Command buttons or push buttons are used to execute or to run a macro; it performs a task when you click on it.

• Combo Box:

An interactive tool for enhanced user interaction. It is a drop-down list from where you can select or add items of your choice to the list. You can select an item of your choice either by typing text into the combo box or by selecting it from the list.

• Image Control:

It embeds a picture or image such as JPG, JPEG, bitmap, GIF files & PNG formats.

• Label:

It is used to display information or descriptive text or instructions. It can be either caption or title.

• List Box:

It is used to display a list of items to a list from where you can select one or more. By default, the options or choices are displayed vertically.

• Option Button:

It is used to select only one option from multiple options within a group. visually you can point out whether the Options Button Control is selected or not. It is linked to a worksheet cell; when you select an option button, the value will be “TRUE”, or if you deselect it, the value will be “FALSE”.

Scroll Bar: 

It helps you easily navigate a large list of items by scrolling either vertically or horizontally. Scroll arrows in the Scroll bar can be either up/down or sideways.

• Spin Button:

It is used to decrease or increase the number or value of a cell. The spin button is useful for showing the maximum & minimum value of the set range.

• Text Box:

It is used to place a text in them. It can be either read-only or in Locked format. Multiple lines can be entered in the text box.

• Toggle Button:

It is mostly used to hide or unhide a range of rows or columns, and it is also used to hide or unhide a chart.

4. XML commands usage.

To import & export Extensible Markup Language (XML) data created from other databases and applications, it enables you to exchange data between different applications.

Things to Remember 

Apart from the above-mentioned uses, the developer tab in excel also helps out for the following:

• To Create or develop applications that can be used in Microsoft Office programs.
• Work with the Shape Sheet in diagramming and vector graphics application (Microsoft Visio)
• Create new shapes and stencils in Microsoft Visio.
• The Developer tab in excel also gives you quick access to some of the more advanced features and functions available.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to Developer Tab in Excel. Here we discuss how to add the Developer tab in Excel Ribbon, along with Developer Tab Sections & their various uses. You may also look at the other related articles –

1. Ribbon in Excel
2. XML in Excel
3. User-Defined Function in Excel
4. Data Table in Excel