Before You Email Me
First I would like to say that I appreciate all of the mail I receive; your questions challenge me and encourage me to continue to develop the site. Without feedback, the Internet would quickly become stale.
Before you email me, use the following as a checklist to make sure I can respond quickly and accurately to your query.
Have you:
- First searched the Web, Microsoft newsgroups or the VBA search engine for the answer?
- Provided enough details that allow me to respond directly with the answer, instead of with followup questions?
- Told me your version of Office/Excel/Outlook/whatever?
- Actually tested your code?
- Made sure macros are enabled?
- Declared all your variables, used Option Explicit and Debug » Compile, and made sure your variables are the correct type for the value or object you intend them to hold?
- Provided an exact description of how the code is being used, the purpose of the code, the versions of Office it is being used on (and other environmental factors such as MS Exchange, network server, etc), and the exact text of any error messages you are getting?
- Stated your goal, not just the particular step you need help with? (There may be a better way to accomplish your goal, but if you only ask for help with a particular step, you may not get the help you really need.)
- Written at least some code already, and you just need help finishing up part of it?
Please understand, I can't see what you see, or know what you know; I only know what you tell me. If you leave out relevant details, you'll get a useless response that merely asks for the information, wasting valuable time that could have been spent working on a solution.
There are great guides out there that can help you make sure you are asking questions the right way, for example 10 Ways To Improve Tech Support and How To Ask Questions The Smart Way.
I would also ask anyone to consider the following before contacting me about a VBA/MS Office problem:
- Don't say "It doesn't work" — be specific!
- Step through the code by pressing F8 repeatedly. Does a specific line cause an error? If so, what line? What is the error message?
- Create a small generic test case to demonstrate an issue, instead of dumping 200 lines of your custom code into an email.
- Explain what your goal is, and don't pollute the solution with a particular implementation. This will allow me to offer different solutions with tools or methods more appropriate to accomplish what you want (instead of being locked in to the particular implementation you've already decided on).
- If you're using code taken from a website or forum posting, include a link to the code, and if you've changed the code even slightly, say so.
- Please don't send me sample workbooks, PDFs, JPGs, etc, without being asked. Text files or code sent in the body of an email are my preferred method for receiving code snippets.
- If you make a code request for something very broad, or a general question that would require extensive coding, I may ask you how much you are willing to spend on it. The likelihood of this occurring also increases exponentially with each email exchanged. See my project page for information about projects for hire.
- I may ask you to post your question on a Microsoft newsgroup (which I frequent), so others may benefit from the answer.
- I may just point you to a page on this site, or another webpage I find with the answer. (Why reinvent the wheel?)
- I may provide you with generic VBA code which you would need to modify to the particulars of your project.
- I may not respond at all. This might happen if:
- you send me your code and I drop it into a module with Option Explicit and the code doesn't even compile.
- your question is poorly worded, or too many details are left out for me to even begin to help you.
- I google the text of your error message, or a few related keywords, and the first hit leads to a solution.
Remember this is my hobby, for which I generally provide free assistance, which means I may not be available at all times.
Thanks,
Jimmy Peña
