On advanced Excel courses I teach attendees how to use the macro recorder. I also start VBA beginner trainings with the recorder and analysing the recorded code. I find the macro recorder a good entry point to learning VBA and programming. I'm always struggling with exercises though.
What exercises do you use when teaching MS Office macro recorder? Exercises that make sense in the real word. (E.g. creating a macro that writes "Hello World" in the active cell is fun and educational, but completely pointless in the real world.)
The main goal here is to give them a feel for the rigid sort of thinking macros and programming requires, and also to whet their appetite for macro programming, to show them how mundane tasks can be automated.