Product Description

Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is a set of tools based on the Visual Basic language. The great thing about using it to enhance Office applications is that it's easier to learn than Visual Basic and it comes with your Office license. After reading this book, the reader will be proficient in the VBA language and will have extensive knowledge of the Office 2003 Object Model. This book will cover all features of the VBA editor and show how to program some of the more useful new features in the Office 2003 applications.

This book assumes no prior programming experience, so even programming novices can get up to speed quickly on the basics of the VBA language. It is very practical and offers the reader tested programs and projects that he or she can implement right away. This book reinforces the reader's learning by presenting useful, end-of-chapter pedagogical resources, including question-and-answer sessions and quizzes, as well as practical exercises that cement and extend the reader's knowledge. It explorers not only the object models of Word and Excel, but also other members of the Office 2003 suite, including PowerPoint, Access, and Outlook.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #62829 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From the Back Cover

Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is a set of tools based on the Visual Basic language. The great thing about using it to enhance Office applications is that it's easier to learn than Visual Basic and it comes with your Office license. After reading this book, the reader will be proficient in the VBA language and will have extensive knowledge of the Office 2003 Object Model. This book will cover all features of the VBA editor and show how to program some of the more useful new features in the Office 2003 applications.

This book assumes no prior programming experience, so even programming novices can get up to speed quickly on the basics of the VBA language. It is very practical and offers the reader tested programs and projects that he or she can implement right away. This book reinforces the reader's learning by presenting useful, end-of-chapter pedagogical resources, including question-and-answer sessions and quizzes, as well as practical exercises that cement and extend the reader's knowledge. It explorers not only the object models of Word and Excel, but also other members of the Office 2003 suite, including PowerPoint, Access, and Outlook.

About the Author

Paul McFedries is the president of Logophilia Limited, a technical writing company. While now primarily a writer, Paul has worked as a programmer, consultant, spreadsheet developer, and Web site developer. Paul has written more than 40 books that have sold nearly three million copies worldwide. These books include Access 2003 Forms, Reports, and Queries, Formulas and FUnctions with Microsoft Excel 2003, and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Windows XP.

Customer Reviews

Fantastic for the Beginner
Although I'm by no means a programming novice, I was interested in learning more about VBA, particularily in gaining a solid understanding of the basics. This book provides a fantastic, solid basis from which to start to learn VBA.

The best bits?
+ I love learning by studying examples and this book has plenty, with great explainations backing them up.
+ From the 3 or 4 VBA books I now have, this book is unique in that it contains individual chapters about how to use VBA in all the office applications although not to any great detail.

Why not 5 stars?
+ Detail. This book is a great starting point for leaning VBA but no more than that.

Beginner's Guide?
Although I have experience of programming I found this book far too hard to justify the title of Absolute Beginner's Guide . . It is well written but someone may buy this book who is an absolute beginner and be put off attempting to learn VBA. I know I was. Even if the book is aimed at the novice programmer it has much to discourage that learner. The would be learner of VBA would be better off using the excellent Help option in the VBA editor that any Excel user can access from the program and study the examples. I'll be more wary in future of an books that have in their title 'Absolute Beginners Guide'

Here is a quote from page 25: 'If you have a VBA statement that needs to call a procedure in another project, you first need to set up a reference (italics) to the project. Doing this gives you access to all the project's procedures. The following steps . . . ' There are over 300 pages in the book.

But, for anyone who is using a programing language and would like to learn VBA the book is very good. I believe that the book should be expanded in the earlier chapters to enable the learner to master recording macros before being lead into deeper waters.

Spot On
Excellent book, unlike most VBA books this covers all aspects of Office integration.

A great books for beginners, and an excellent reference for others.

Don't be put off by the "Absolute Beginners's" title, it's a great book for experienced users too.