Customer Reviews

Building Applications W/Microsoft Outlook 98 (Indep. Programming)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I am a Visual Basic developer who is new to Outlook development. Yes, the book is basic in it's discussion of controls and development concepts. However, I found it a decent 'first-step' in 'breaking the ice' of the Outlook development architecture.

Yes, the previous reviews are correct in saying that this book is NOT for the experienced Outlook developer. (I am always leery of books that list NO AUTHORS, noting only an 'editor, et al' ... does no one wish to take credit [blame] for the book?)

But for those who have NO development/programming experience, this is for you. It speaks in basic, easy to absorb, step-by-step language, assuming nothing. As of this writing, I am half-way through the book and there has been no discussion of Exchange Server, serious Visual Basic coding, CDO concepts, nor have the topics wandered from the built-in, 'pre-selected' development interfaces in Outlook.

However, the organization is largely built around several pre-created applications (found in the accompanying CD). As the reader, in step-by-step fashion, reconstructs these applications, the purpose of the applications, as well as the Outlook environment, becomes evident. This allows the BEGINNER to learn by DOING. At times the repeating of concepts become tedious, but the upside is that the beginner is forced to 'rehash' (i.e., LEARN) the concepts in the 'creation' (or re-construction) of multiple applications.

For serious Outlook development, you will need to immediately proceed to a more in-depth book. This book serves ONLY as a 'whistle-wetter.'

However, if have NO applications development experience whatsoever and need to 'dive-in' to Outlook 98 applications creation, this book is the perfect first-step.

If you simply want to learn to use precreated forms - you may get some small value out of this book. If you want to be able to create templates using other objects such as spreadsheets - forget it. This book was a waste of money - especially since I still need to go out and get something that really does give instruction on creating an Outlook application :(

This book was generally a disappointment to me. For instance, the book never mentions the exceedingly critical fact that most of the Outlook workgroup functions are worth nothing unless you have purchased and installed Exchange Server for your workgroup. It blithely assumes that you have Exchange before you bought the book. And we are most concerned about how to make Outlook work with Access, but this is hardly mentioned, and I extracted no useful information on this topic. The author attempts to make the book relevant to the typical user by including a number of examples with code, but if you can't use these specific examples I'm not sure where you would turn next. The book lacks the comprehensive nature of a reference, and really is best at instructing beginning Outlook users in the fundamentals of form creation and task management. But that's the irony: anyone concerned with form creation and task management will already be an intermediate user! The book moves very ! slowly through the fundamentals as though afraid of scaring you off with too much technical content. If your needs are beyond this simple scope, and likely they are or shortly will be, you will find that this book is insufficient.

By the way, thanks to all of you who submit book reviews - they are really useful to me.

I have had an extremely difficult time locating experienced developers of Outlook/Exchange applications. I purchased this book with the hope that I could use it as a quick reference guide to building my own applications in Outlook. Do NOT count on jumping from section to section in this book - it can't be used that way. However, when read in a sequential fashion along with the sample exercises, it is EXTREMEMLY helpful and user friendly, especially if you do not have any programming knowledge. It is has made a tremendous difference in furthering our use of Exchange's public folder system as a communication and information tool.

I simply cannot learn the capabilities of Outlook forms from this waste of $40! The VBScripting reference in a gloss-ed overview.

It's in the same format as all Microsoft documentation - which leaves much to be desired.

I have 4 books on this subject and this is by FAR the most thorough on customizing forms for Outlook 98! If you are new to creating forms this is a MUST BUY.

I think this is a good book for all who want to begin to understand how to build applications with Outlook and Exchange. For beginers it's a good starting point. For intermediate level is a good resource of refference. Creo que es un buen libro para todos aquellos que quieren comenzar a entender como comenzar a construir aplicaciones con el Outllok y el Exchange Server. Para principiantes es un buen punto de partida y para intermedios un buen libro de referencia

Not a reference work at all. Unless you follow the exercises page-by-page, you will get nothing from this book. I can't wait for the "For Dummies" people to write a GOOD book on this topic.

If you're looking for a comprehensive Outlook programming reference text, this is not the book. However, as a starting point for Outlook programming (together with the Outlook development Help file, VBScript HTML-based help and KnowledgeBase articles -- all from Microsoft) it's really all that's available. It leads you through some reasonable, canned Outlook applications but it's missing hardcore information about the Object Model, publishing into your Organization, Office Template forms, all the GUI Objects, Properties, etc.

I purchased this book hoping to find out how to create forms that other could use in my organization. This is something the book claims to be able to do but it looks like it must have been written by someone that created Outlook because too many things seem to be missing, taken for granted by the author, that I can't piece together. I feel like I wasted my money. My biggest mistake was not to purchase the book I wanted from Amazon where I could choose the author of my choice instead of making due with whatever was on the shelf at a book store.