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Ryan Wells

Introduction | Design Splash Screen | Animate Splash Screen | Hide Title Bar (Optional) |
Display Splash Screen | Final Thoughts

Introduction

Give your spreadsheet the grand entrance it deserves by designing and displaying an
awesome animated splash screen when your workbook is opened. A high-quality launch
page for your spreadsheet is just what it needs to make it look more professional. This
VBA tutorial will give you step by step instructions on how to build and display an
eye-catching splash screen when someone opens your workbook, so youll be able to stand
out among the growing Excel crowd.

Design Splash Screen

The fun part of creating a splash screen is actually designing your UserForm. If youre new
to VBA, follow these steps to add a UserForm.

1. Open the VBA Editor (Alt+F11)

2. Insert a UserForm

1. Right-click the Project Explorer Pane

2. Hover over Insert

3. Click Userform

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3. Start designing!

You can design your splash screen however you like. When I create an Excel splash
screen, I like to include a logo, the title of my project, my name, a copyright
year, a link to my website and a label at the bottom that Ill use to update the
status.

It doesnt matter what you name your objects, but if youd like to follow along exactly how
my splash screen is labeled then you can match the following 2 object names:

1. Name your userform SplashUserForm.

2. Name the last label - the one that says Loading Data in the image below - Label1.

Dont worry about the caption of your userform. Were going to hide the title bar when
were done so people wont even see it!

Heres an example of my splash screen for a Species List project Im working on. If youre
interested, my Species List project is a project for documenting, tracking and trending the
animals you see in your area.

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Animate Splash Screen

Lets apply a quick animation to our Excel splash screen. As it loads, well change the
caption of Label1 at the bottom of the form. To do this, right-click your userform and
select View Code. Paste the following macro somewhere in the code section of your
userform.

Private Sub UserForm_Activate()

Application.Wait (Now + TimeValue("00:00:01"))
SplashUserForm.Label1.Caption = "Loading Data..."
SplashUserForm.Repaint
Application.Wait (Now + TimeValue("00:00:01"))
SplashUserForm.Label1.Caption = "Creating Forms..."
SplashUserForm.Repaint
Application.Wait (Now + TimeValue("00:00:01"))
SplashUserForm.Label1.Caption = "Opening..."
SplashUserForm.Repaint
Application.Wait (Now + TimeValue("00:00:01"))
Unload SplashUserForm
End Sub

Your time is valuable. It's time to become a VBA expert.

What this does is update the caption of Label1 every 1 second, before exiting the userform.
Be patient! Ill show the Excel splash screen in action in a few minutes! Before I do that,
lets fine-tune how the screen displays.

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Hide Title Bar (Optional)

This section is optional! If youre in a hurry or this section looks too complicated, you can
skip to the section titled Display Splash Screen.

Most of the hard work is done. The next few steps control how we want the excel splash
screen to display. Consider this section a visual enhancement.

Right now, if we display our userform, youll still see the title bar showing UserForm1
with the red X in the upper right. We want to hide that. Hiding the title bar makes your
splash screen look incredible! Lets begin.

1. Insert a Standard Module

1. Right-click the Project Explorer Pane

2. Hover over Insert

3. Click Module

2. Paste the following macro into the module

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Option Explicit
Option Private Module

Public Const GWL_STYLE = -16

Public Const WS_CAPTION = &HC00000
Public Declare Function GetWindowLong _
Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowLongA" ( _
ByVal hWnd As Long, _
ByVal nIndex As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function SetWindowLong _
Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowLongA" ( _
ByVal hWnd As Long, _
ByVal nIndex As Long, _
ByVal dwNewLong As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function DrawMenuBar _
Lib "user32" ( _
ByVal hWnd As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function FindWindowA _
Lib "user32" (ByVal lpClassName As String,
_
ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long

Sub HideTitleBar(frm As Object)

Dim lngWindow As Long
Dim lFrmHdl As Long
lFrmHdl = FindWindowA(vbNullString, frm.Caption)
lngWindow = GetWindowLong(lFrmHdl, GWL_STYLE)
lngWindow = lngWindow And (Not WS_CAPTION)
Call SetWindowLong(lFrmHdl, GWL_STYLE, lngWindow)
Call DrawMenuBar(lFrmHdl)
End Sub

Once you do this, go back to your SplashUserForm code and paste the following macro:

Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()

HideTitleBar Me
End Sub

Display Splash Screen

To be an effective splash screen, you want it to display when your spreadsheet is first
opened. To do that, double-click ThisWorkbook in your Project Explorer Pane and paste
the following VBA macro:

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Private Sub Workbook_Open()

Application.ScreenUpdating = False
ActiveWindow.Visible = False
SplashUserForm.Show
Windows(ThisWorkbook.Name).Visible = True
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

Were done! Save your workbook, close it and reopen it to see your incredible Excel
Splash Screen masterpiece.

Excel Splash Screen in Action

Pretty cool, isnt it?

Final Thoughts

Now that you know how to make an Excel Splash Screen, go out and impress your boss! I
have some creative readers out there and Id love it if you would comment below and show
me your splash screen designs!

As always, please subscribe to my email list, share this article on Facebook, Twitter or your
favorite social media platform and follow me on Google+ for more great VBA content!

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Discover how this Nuclear Engineer Mastered Excel VBA

And why you should, too

Your time is valuable. It's time to become a VBA expert.

About Ryan Wells

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