Excel

Use the Status bar to report information back to the user whilst code is being executed.

For example, if several files or database queries are being run, then

Application.StatusBar = "Loading file 1 ..."

will display a message on the status bar.

Application.StatusBar = False

Will remove the value on the status bar.

However, we are then back with the issue of nested calls.

Its much better to create two utility functions, with the call, PushStatusMessage, and PopStatusMessage that creates a stack of status messages.

Private Const MaxStatusMessage As Integer = 100
Dim StatusMessages(MaxStatusMessage) As String
Dim StatusMessageCount As Integer

Public Sub PushStatusMessage(message As String)
    If StatusMessageCount = MaxStatusMessage Then
        MsgBox "Status message stack is full"
        Exit Sub
    End If
    StatusMessages(StatusMessageCount) = message
    StatusMessageCount = StatusMessageCount + 1
    Application.StatusBar = message
End Sub

Public Sub PopStatusMessage()
    If StatusMessageCount = 0 Then
        'MsgBox "Status message stack is empty"
        Exit Sub
    End If
    StatusMessageCount = StatusMessageCount - 1
    If StatusMessageCount = 0 Then
        Application.StatusBar = False
    Else
        Application.StatusBar = StatusMessages(StatusMessageCount - 1)
    End If
End Sub

Public Sub Test()
    PushStatusMessage ("Test 1")
    PushStatusMessage ("Test 2")
    PopStatusMessage
    PopStatusMessage
End Sub