Excel – Changing the orientation (portrait or landscape) of an Excel chart using VBA

chartsexcelgraphlayoutvba

I am trying to write a macro to automatically print all the charts I have created in a workbook using another macro. (literally hundreds) The problem I'm having is that I cannot figure out how to change the graph from a portrait layout to a landscape layout using VBA. I was wondering if anyone could help me out. I tried the code bellow but it gives me an error at the line " .ChartObjects(x).PageSetup.Orientation = xlLandscape " I understand that for a chart object that this isn't the correct property but I can't figure out what else it is.

Any help would be appreciated!

Option Explicit

Sub Print_All_Charts()
    Dim szASheet As String
    szASheet = ActiveSheet.Name

    Dim lChartObjCount As Long
    lChartObjCount = ActiveSheet.ChartObjects.Count

    With Application
        .ScreenUpdating = False

        .ActivePrinter = "HP Color LaserJet 5550 PS on Ne08:"

        'On Error Resume Next
        Dim wks As Worksheet
        For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets

            Dim x As Long
            For x = 1 To lChartObjCount

                With wks

                    .ChartObjects(x).PageSetup.Orientation = xlLandscape

                    .ChartObjects(x).Select

                    .ChartObjects(x).Activate

                    .PrintOut , , 1

                End With

            Next x

        Next wks

        ActiveChart.Deselect
        With Sheets(szASheet)
            .Select
            .Range("A1").Select
        End With

        .ScreenUpdating = True
    End With
End Sub

Best Answer

Manipulating Excel charts using VBA is always a bit confusing, because there are ChartObject objects and then there are Chart objects. Each ChartObject object has a child Chart object. It isn't always very intuitive which properties and methods belong to the Chart and which are to be found on its parent ChartObject. Quoting VBA help:

[ChartObject] represents an embedded chart on a worksheet. The ChartObject object acts as a container for a Chart object. Properties and methods for the ChartObject object control the appearance and size of the embedded chart on the worksheet.

Reading VBA help can drive you nuts if you don't have your glasses on, because ChartObject means something different than Chart object!

Anyhow, as it turns out, .PageSetup.Orientation sits on Chart and not ChartObject as you were inferring.

    Dim wks As Worksheet
    Dim chartObject As ChartObject

    For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
        For Each chartObject In wks.ChartObjects
            .Chart.PageSetup.Orientation = xlLandscape ' or xlPortrait
            .Chart.PrintOut Preview:=True, ActivePrinter:="PDFCreator"
        Next
    Next

This assumes that you want to print each chart on a separate page. What you were doing in your code was printing out each entire worksheet at once, but that doesn't seem to square with the rest of your question.

Here I used PDFCreator as my printer, because I didn't want to waste a bunch of paper while testing this code. You can of course adjust this as you see fit.

Also I set the active printer at the time of printing. Of course you can also use Application.ActivePrinter instead, but that will affect the active printer even when the macro is done running.

How it works

I will try my best to explain how it works - please excuse my English.

The VBE will call a system function to create the password dialog box.
If user enters the right password and click OK, this function returns 1. If user enters the wrong password or click Cancel, this function returns 0.
After the dialog box is closed, the VBE checks the returned value of the system function
if this value is 1, the VBE will "think" that the password is right, hence the locked VBA project will be opened.
The code below swaps the memory of the original function used to display the password dialog with a user defined function that will always return 1 when being called.

Using the code

Please backup your files first!

Open the file(s) that contain your locked VBA Projects

Create a new xlsm file and store this code in Module1

code credited to Siwtom (nick name), a Vietnamese developer

Option Explicit

Private Const PAGE_EXECUTE_READWRITE = &H40

Private Declare Sub MoveMemory Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" _
        (Destination As Long, Source As Long, ByVal Length As Long)

Private Declare Function VirtualProtect Lib "kernel32" (lpAddress As Long, _
        ByVal dwSize As Long, ByVal flNewProtect As Long, lpflOldProtect As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function GetModuleHandleA Lib "kernel32" (ByVal lpModuleName As String) As Long

Private Declare Function GetProcAddress Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hModule As Long, _
        ByVal lpProcName As String) As Long

Private Declare Function DialogBoxParam Lib "user32" Alias "DialogBoxParamA" (ByVal hInstance As Long, _
        ByVal pTemplateName As Long, ByVal hWndParent As Long, _
        ByVal lpDialogFunc As Long, ByVal dwInitParam As Long) As Integer

Dim HookBytes(0 To 5) As Byte
Dim OriginBytes(0 To 5) As Byte
Dim pFunc As Long
Dim Flag As Boolean

Private Function GetPtr(ByVal Value As Long) As Long
    GetPtr = Value
End Function

Public Sub RecoverBytes()
    If Flag Then MoveMemory ByVal pFunc, ByVal VarPtr(OriginBytes(0)), 6
End Sub

Public Function Hook() As Boolean
    Dim TmpBytes(0 To 5) As Byte
    Dim p As Long
    Dim OriginProtect As Long

    Hook = False

    pFunc = GetProcAddress(GetModuleHandleA("user32.dll"), "DialogBoxParamA")


    If VirtualProtect(ByVal pFunc, 6, PAGE_EXECUTE_READWRITE, OriginProtect) <> 0 Then

        MoveMemory ByVal VarPtr(TmpBytes(0)), ByVal pFunc, 6
        If TmpBytes(0) <> &H68 Then

            MoveMemory ByVal VarPtr(OriginBytes(0)), ByVal pFunc, 6

            p = GetPtr(AddressOf MyDialogBoxParam)

            HookBytes(0) = &H68
            MoveMemory ByVal VarPtr(HookBytes(1)), ByVal VarPtr(p), 4
            HookBytes(5) = &HC3

            MoveMemory ByVal pFunc, ByVal VarPtr(HookBytes(0)), 6
            Flag = True
            Hook = True
        End If
    End If
End Function

Private Function MyDialogBoxParam(ByVal hInstance As Long, _
        ByVal pTemplateName As Long, ByVal hWndParent As Long, _
        ByVal lpDialogFunc As Long, ByVal dwInitParam As Long) As Integer
    If pTemplateName = 4070 Then
        MyDialogBoxParam = 1
    Else
        RecoverBytes
        MyDialogBoxParam = DialogBoxParam(hInstance, pTemplateName, _
                           hWndParent, lpDialogFunc, dwInitParam)
        Hook
    End If
End Function

Paste this code under the above code in Module1 and run it

Sub unprotected()
    If Hook Then
        MsgBox "VBA Project is unprotected!", vbInformation, "*****"
    End If
End Sub

Come back to your VBA Projects and enjoy.

Excel – How to avoid using Select in Excel VBA

Some examples of how to avoid select

Use Dim'd variables

Dim rng as Range

Set the variable to the required range. There are many ways to refer to a single-cell range:

Set rng = Range("A1")
Set rng = Cells(1, 1)
Set rng = Range("NamedRange")

Or a multi-cell range:

Set rng = Range("A1:B10")
Set rng = Range("A1", "B10")
Set rng = Range(Cells(1, 1), Cells(10, 2))
Set rng = Range("AnotherNamedRange")
Set rng = Range("A1").Resize(10, 2)

You can use the shortcut to the Evaluate method, but this is less efficient and should generally be avoided in production code.

Set rng = [A1]
Set rng = [A1:B10]

All the above examples refer to cells on the active sheet. Unless you specifically want to work only with the active sheet, it is better to Dim a Worksheet variable too:

Dim ws As Worksheet
Set ws = Worksheets("Sheet1")
Set rng = ws.Cells(1, 1)
With ws
    Set rng = .Range(.Cells(1, 1), .Cells(2, 10))
End With

If you do want to work with the ActiveSheet, for clarity it's best to be explicit. But take care, as some Worksheet methods change the active sheet.

Set rng = ActiveSheet.Range("A1")

Again, this refers to the active workbook. Unless you specifically want to work only with the ActiveWorkbook or ThisWorkbook, it is better to Dim a Workbook variable too.

Dim wb As Workbook
Set wb = Application.Workbooks("Book1")
Set rng = wb.Worksheets("Sheet1").Range("A1")

If you do want to work with the ActiveWorkbook, for clarity it's best to be explicit. But take care, as many WorkBook methods change the active book.

Set rng = ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1").Range("A1")

You can also use the ThisWorkbook object to refer to the book containing the running code.

Set rng = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1").Range("A1")

A common (bad) piece of code is to open a book, get some data then close again

This is bad:

Sub foo()
    Dim v as Variant
    Workbooks("Book1.xlsx").Sheets(1).Range("A1").Clear
    Workbooks.Open("C:\Path\To\SomeClosedBook.xlsx")
    v = ActiveWorkbook.Sheets(1).Range("A1").Value
    Workbooks("SomeAlreadyOpenBook.xlsx").Activate
    ActiveWorkbook.Sheets("SomeSheet").Range("A1").Value = v
    Workbooks(2).Activate
    ActiveWorkbook.Close()
End Sub

And it would be better like:

Sub foo()
    Dim v as Variant
    Dim wb1 as Workbook
    Dim  wb2 as Workbook
    Set wb1 = Workbooks("SomeAlreadyOpenBook.xlsx")
    Set wb2 = Workbooks.Open("C:\Path\To\SomeClosedBook.xlsx")
    v = wb2.Sheets("SomeSheet").Range("A1").Value
    wb1.Sheets("SomeOtherSheet").Range("A1").Value = v
    wb2.Close()
End Sub

Pass ranges to your Subs and Functions as Range variables:

Sub ClearRange(r as Range)
    r.ClearContents
    '....
End Sub

Sub MyMacro()
    Dim rng as Range
    Set rng = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("SomeSheet").Range("A1:B10")
    ClearRange rng
End Sub

You should also apply Methods (such as Find and Copy) to variables:

Dim rng1 As Range
Dim rng2 As Range
Set rng1 = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("SomeSheet").Range("A1:A10")
Set rng2 = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("SomeSheet").Range("B1:B10")
rng1.Copy rng2

If you are looping over a range of cells it is often better (faster) to copy the range values to a variant array first and loop over that:

Dim dat As Variant
Dim rng As Range
Dim i As Long

Set rng = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("SomeSheet").Range("A1:A10000")
dat = rng.Value  ' dat is now array (1 to 10000, 1 to 1)
for i = LBound(dat, 1) to UBound(dat, 1)
    dat(i,1) = dat(i, 1) * 10 ' Or whatever operation you need to perform
next
rng.Value = dat ' put new values back on sheet

This is a small taster for what's possible.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Excel – way to crack the password on an Excel VBA Project

How it works

Using the code

Excel – How to avoid using Select in Excel VBA

Some examples of how to avoid select

Related Topic