Choosing to develop in VBA - researching options

Hi,

I have been looking on the net for guidance as to how to progress an Excel spreadsheet program that I have developed. It's a program to track foods and symptoms which is intended to help people with diet related illnesses. There aren't any complex calculations but plenty of printouts and lots of areas to input daily data and produce graphs etc.. I orginally developed it all to help myself overcome my CFS and IBS and I'm now thinking about putting it together in such a way that others can easily benefit from it and hopefully make use of its facilities to help them find a way out of their health problems.

I'm trying to decide whether to develop it into a distributable application using VBA or to convert it into a stand alone .exe program. My concern now is that if I use VBA then people who may want to use it will have to have Excel ( an assumption on my part at the moment ) so that may restrict people who don't have/can't afford Office who may want to use it. Many CFS sufferers are out of work for a very long time.

An exe application gives it more flexibility ( plus cross platform capability ) but will certainly take me a lot more time to put together and no doubt will cost me a lot more too as I'm not at that level of programming and will need help. Also I can see that things may evolve and it will be easier to make mods in Excel/VBA so I am considering getting things together via this route at present in view of the flexibility and cost considerations.

I have looked on the net and seen third party applications which state that they will convert Excel workbooks in .asp / html/ java etc type web based applications but from what I've seen of the final product none of them looks too convincing in what they can do. I came across this site and thought that it was very helpful and I do like the idea of using VBA and maybe getting someone to help me put it together but then I felt that before making any decisions I would ask for opinions here about possible routes for getting something together which could easily be used by anyone with just basic computer skills.

I wondered if, having developed something in VBA, there was then a route in the future to translating the final product into a stand alone application without having to start from square one. I have done this in the distant past with a very expensive product which I used to convert a complex cashflow spreadsheet which I designed but I remember that the final product wasn't too good with graphs. This current spreadsheet of mine has a lot of graphs and also makes lots of use of things like comment boxes which Excel is good at and these I will need in the final form of the program.

I have seen distributed applications produced in VBA and some of them have looked very professional, well designed and easy to use and I very much like the idea of going this route but I need to do more research before making up my mind on this subject. From what I have seen I am inclined to go the VBA route, especially now that I have found this site and seen that I can get help and advice, but I appreciate that I need the input of experienced wisdom before jumping into a plan which means a lot of work and/or expense on my part.

My apologies if this topic has been covered elsewhere on the forum. Pointers to it would be appreciated if it has.

Any advice or pointers on this subject would be very much welcomed.
Kindest regards and very best wishes to you
Phillip

Hi Ray,

Thanks for your comments and for the very informative link. I'm going to study your suggestion more as it seems to offer lots of possibilities. I like the idea of a web based facility as it opens up the availability of my program to anyone who has access to the net.

I appreciate Roy's comment about the number of people who have Excel but over the years of my involvement in the PC business I have see a great many who are still using Excel 95/97 and even more who just stick with MS Works because it came with the PC and they don't see the need to have anything more comprehensive.

I would also like people in less wealthy countries to have access to what I'm doing but, then again, third world citizens don't seem to suffer from the diet and stress related illnesses and allergies that Western folk do.

Many thanks once again
I do appreciate your input
Kind regards and best wishes
Phillip

Hi,

Having looked at the options I am inclined to follow the VBA-VB route as you recommend but I have a question about updating the program. What I have designed up to now will no doubt evolve into a much bigger and more comprehensive application as I am covering a big subject and there are certain to be things which will need to be added to it as time goes on.

So how would users of my spreadsheet based program be able to take advantage of the newer and improved version(s) without having to copy all their data across manually. Is there an easy way to transpose one spreadsheets' data to another without losing anything - even cell based comments?

Thanks again for all your help
Kind regards and best wishes
Phillip