Customer Reviews

Mastering Excel 2003 Programming with VBA

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This is the best book on Developing with Excel I've read (still reading). It is now known that Excel's macro recorder sometimes produces inefficient and un-maintainable code. So, the author doesn't waste time with the macro recorder, instead he goes directly into VBA. I particularly like his treatment of GetOpenFilename, GetSaveAsFilename, and "Breaking down into path and File name components". Chapter 11 on "Developing Class Modules" is also excellent in introducing this complicated subject gently. Besides, the concepts learned here can be applied to other Microsoft applications such as Access.
He has managed to present the material in just 585 pages in a logical manner. I always had the impression that programming books over 1000 pages are less approachable and therefore less useful than books under 1000 pages.
Congratulations and many thanks to the author Steven Hansen.

There are many books on VBA programming, and many of them specialize in Excel. If you are (or hope to be) a *serious* business application developer with Excel using VBA, then this is the best book you will find anywhere.

If you are a first-time beginner, you may want to check out "Excel 2002 Visual Basic for Applications Step by Step" by Reed Jacobson before going on to this book.

Mr. Hansen does review the basics, but the book is directed primarily to a reader who has had at least some exposure to Excel VBA, although you do not need to be a seasoned expert.

You often see the phrase "Real World Examples" associated with books of this type. I don't know what "Real World" most of those authors live in, but Mr. Hansen is the first I have discovered who appears to inhabit the same planet that I do. All of his examples are going into my permanent code library, where I know they will be used over and over.

The approach to teaching the subject is also excellent. After a review of the basics, each of the important objects of the Excel Object Model is covered. This book does not attempt to be exhaustive. It is focused on the practical. Once you have "Mastered" these fundamentals, you should be able to develop more advanced techniques on your own.

Best in Class, Best in Show. Buy it.

I'm the author of this book and encourage you to check this book out. I wrote this book with a smart, motivated, corporate audience in mind. This book is packed with content and techniques that have been validated by nearly a decade of "in-the-trenches" corporate development.

I stand behind all of the listings in this book. If they don't work - chances are you're not doing something right. As any "Excel/VBA expert" can tell you, parameterized procedures will not show up in the Macro dialog box. If you have any questions I encourage you to contact me. Thanks & Happy Reading!

This is my 4th MS Excel 2003 I've read. It is by far the most thorough, enjoying and easy to read and learn. It comes with many working examples and covers just every thing a starter, with a little bit of programming skills, would need to write his first applications. Very good study and reference book for every thing related to Excel programming. Enjoy!

I found some example code that I wanted to use, and copied the example word for word, and it wouldn't work, so I downloaded the sample files, an found that the same example (listing 7.9 on page 147) would not work either. I had to get another program off of the internet that WOULD work.

I later found that none of the examples that I downloaded worked!! I have discovered that this book is a complete waste of my money and valuable time. How Steven Hansen ever got this book published is beyond me. Obviously, Sybex does not have an editorial staff that verifies that any of the examples work.

Spend your hard earned money on any of the books that have been published by John Walkenbach. John is an expert that knows Excel backwards and forwards.