Excel to Twitter
February 8, 2009 @ 9:31 PM by JP • 1 views • 29 Comments »
I was inspired by Chandoo's post Write Your Own Twitter Client using Microsoft Excel to take his code and create a userform version. Actually, I was waiting for someone else to do it, since the major portion of the code was written, but since nobody stepped up, I took matters into my own hands. Took me all of half a day to complete, so here it is for anyone who wishes an Excel add-in version of Chandoo's spreadsheet.
I'd like to thank Chandoo for putting forth the effort to understand the Twitter API and produce such excellent VBA code, on which this add-in is based. I see he's using his new live.com webspace well!
Note that there are two types of each add-in: ones with the project locked, in case you don't care about the underlying VBA and just want to use the add-in to send tweets, and ones with the project unlocked, for you to examine the VBA code and make adjustments, send me corrections, make comments, etc.
Code Locked Versions:
Post To Twitter Add-In – Excel 2000-2003 version
Post To Twitter Add-In – Excel 2007 version
Code UN-Locked Versions:
Post To Twitter Add-In – Excel 2000-2003 version
Post To Twitter Add-In – Excel 2007 version
Instructions:
To load the add-in, open the zip file and place the xla/xlam file somewhere safe. In Excel, go to Tools » Add-Ins and click Browse to look for the file. A new menu item on your Data Menu should appear: Post To My Twitter Account. For those of you thinking of using this add-in at work, consider downloading the unlocked version and changing the application title, so it looks inocuous on your menu. 
Screenshots:
Here is the initial screen when you call up the userform:
And here is the completed form, completed with response from Twitter. You'll notice that the password field is blanked out (to prevent nosy shoulder surfers from lifting your password).
When you go to your twitter account from your browser, you'll see the newly added tweet:
My add-in development TAT has increased significantly. It helps to have a stock code library for cutting and pasting purposes. And now that I see the add-ins work in Excel 2007, I might even go back and create XLAM versions of all my add-ins. 
Which brings the total number of add-ins available from this site to six! When will it stop?
Thanks to the Twitter API, I could easily see this add-in becoming a full-blown Twitter client. As usual, comments, questions and suggestions are welcome.
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Very nice addin, considering how popular twitter has become.
BTW, I'm now following you on twitter! You can follow me @einsteinsboi
Quick question, does it have the option to save the username and password or do you have to reenter them each time you tweet or open a spreadsheet?
Hi JP,
Is it possible to made a "international version", that didn't work with my 2007 french version
I receive a: "1004" error with the AddIn class
Greetings from Africa
Henri
Henri — did you download the right version? There is a separate version if you have Excel 2007.
You have to enter it the first time only. Clicking Reset only clears out the Message and Response boxes, so you can enter multiple status messages quickly. But let me add your request to the feature list and see what I can do.
Hi JP,
Yes (?I've donwloaded the 2 2007 version)
First I receive a message: This add-in is tested on US versionsof Excel only. Use with caution.
And after a VB Execution error 1004
@ school I've a PC with 2003 (I gonna check the 2003 versions next week)
Oops…..
Sorry for the trouble JP, it works
)
Glad to hear it Henri, and good luck to you! You're in a rough neighborhood
Hi JP,
About your comment on my blog: no, the plugin apear directly in french
))
And yes, it's a very rough country here…but it's Africa (we need to take it "has is":o)
This is a great add-in. couple of suggestions are to change the url to https.
The other is to add an actual Ribbon interface to it with the Office 2007 Custom UI Editor. I added a button to the Office button for this for ease of access. I can send you the version that I tweaked with this if you like.
I'll check out the secure url. Feel free to send me your update, but I don't have Excel 2007. Can you send me the code as well?
I developed an twitter client on Excel called "TweetSheet", which is a "real" Excel spreadsheet.
http://iphone-chieftain.blogspot.com/2009/04/tweetsheet-10-released.html
Hi, the software is great, but is there a way you can adapt it so that you can post in bulk to twitter using Excel? In otherwords, if I have multiple update/postings that I want to make, each in a unique cell in a single column or something, I'd like for your software to run a for loop through each on of the updates and post them to my twitter account. also, if there is a way to store the user name and password so you don't need to enter it every time, that would be great. Thanks!
The newest version of the add-in lets you store the username and password.
http://www.codeforexcelandoutlook.com/blog/add-ins/#posttotwitter
As for making multiple postings, there are other tools for that. Or you could download the unlocked version of the add-in and modify it. I won't do it because I stop following people who post too often.
Hi together…
I also published a multilanguage Excel Addin for Twitter. If someone is interested, here's the link…
http://www.software.maninweb.de/index.php
Please select language on top left below the teaser and then "Downloads". The making of the Addin can be found in my blog.
Regards
@JP: you got some nice tools here, great
This is super cool. the code is so well written and easy to follow
There's an Excel app that does lots of twitter stuff at http://Twixcel.com Pretty Cool
Unfortunately Twixcel no longer seems to be available – I ended up building my own exported (twextract) instead.
I always saw Twixcel as an effort to game Twitter.
Well any tool can be used to do evil – I just wanted the export-data bit
Except yours is online and only exports to Excel, it's not actually written in VBA.