https://github.com/byronwall/bUTL

Excel add-in with helpers for charting, formatting, and general pain points
https://github.com/byronwall/bUTL

charting excel ribbon ribbon-interface text-formatting utility vba xlam

Last synced: 3 months ago
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Excel add-in with helpers for charting, formatting, and general pain points

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/byronwall/bUTL
• Owner: byronwall
• License: mit
• Created: 2015-07-09T22:39:03.000Z (over 9 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2021-12-27T18:12:35.000Z (about 3 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-08-03T18:19:46.980Z (6 months ago)
• Topics: charting, excel, ribbon, ribbon-interface, text-formatting, utility, vba, xlam
• Language: Visual Basic
• Homepage: http://byroni.us/bUTL
• Size: 6.11 MB
• Stars: 16
• Watchers: 9
• Forks: 3
• Open Issues: 14
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • License: LICENSE.md

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README

        
# bUTL (Excel add-in)

bUTL is an add-in for Excel that started as an accumulation of utility and helper code collected by @byronwall over the years.  It is intended to continue in that vein, growing to include general utilities from others.

## Installation

To use this add-in, simply grab the current [bUTL.xlam](/bUTL.xlam) file from [Releases](/releases).

## Help

Documentation for the features of bUTL are located in the [/docs/ folder](/docs/README.md).  This contains a run down of all the features included in the Ribbon interface.  There are a number of `Subs` which are included in the add-in not placed on the Ribbon.  This is being resolved.

## Contributing

For purposes of development, it is assumed that the **current** source code for the add-in is contained in the [/src/](/src/) folder.  The compiled (really zipped) `bUTL.xlam` is no longer contained in the repo.

If you want to contribute a feature to the add-in or improve the code in some other way (e.g. fix a bug), please use the following workflow:

- clone the repo

- rebuild the xlam file from src, see `scripts/create xlam from src`

- make changes using the VBA editor and possibly the Ribbon editor, saving the file like normal

- export your new add-in back to src, see `scripts/create src from xlam`

- verify that the diffs on the files inside src seem reasonable, there might be a number of xml files and vba/frx files that are generated which were not actually changed; please don't commit these

- commit and submit a pull request

Why? This workflow has been adopted because Excel/VBA files have severe limitations for version control.  An `xlam` file is a zipped folder with a number of binary files inside the zip.  There are a couple of useful add-ins which help manage this, but I would prefer to not dictate what add-ins are installed.  Given that, this workflow and build scripts allow for changes to the underlying VBA code and Ribbon interface to be properly tracked.

## Structure of the repo

The repo contains the source code, documentation, and several scripts used to generate the source from the xlam file.

Folder structure:

- docs: contains Markdown files to explain the functions of the add-in

- scripts: contains the build scripts which are used to convert the xlam file to repo-ready source code and to convert the source code to a usable xlam file.

- src: this folders contains the actual source code including an unzipped version of the xlam file

  - code: this folder contains .bas, .cls, and .frx files which represent the source of the VBA code

  - package: this is an unzipped version of the xlam file which allows for the XML driving the add-in to be tracked correctly