Microsoft® Excel 2000 Power Programming with VBA [Paperback]

John Walkenbach (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 21, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0764532634 | ISBN-13: 978-0764532634 | Edition: Edition Unstated

With the latest version of Visual Basic for Applications and the new Office Component Object Model, Excel 2000 now provides an amazing platform for the development of custom spreadsheets and turnkey applications for a wide range of business needs. With the expert guidance of John Walkenbach, a leading Excel expert better known as "Mr. Spreadsheet," you'll quickly learn how to harness the full programming power of Excel 2000 -- from UserForms to class modules.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you've mastered Excel and need to develop customized applications, Microsoft Excel 2000 Power Programming with VBA should have a place by your side. Written by noted Excel expert and PC World columnist John Walkenbach, it will thrust you deep into the inner workings of Excel and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to get you writing code immediately.

Somewhat text-heavy (as programming books tend to be), it still contains a number of good illustrations and screenshots to effectively teach you. The first three sections cover the fundamentals of Excel and VBA; the next three deal with programming and development topics such as user forms, pivot tables, and event handling; the final section covers miscellaneous issues like compatibility, file manipulation, and class modules.

The five appendices are useful for referencing Excel and VBA information, and the accompanying CD-ROM contains all the code and files you'll need to work through the book, not to mention the shareware version of Walkenbach's Power Utility Pack. (The full version is available through a free offer.) Nobody ever said programming was easy, but with Microsoft Excel 2000 Power Programming with VBA it's a lot simpler. --Rob Lightner

From the Back Cover

Microsoft^® Excel 2000 Power Programming with VBA With the latest version of Visual Basic for Applications and the new Office Component Object Model, Excel 2000 now provides an amazing platform for the development of custom spreadsheets and turnkey applications for a wide range of business needs. With the expert guidance of John Walkenbach, a leading Excel expert better known as "Mr. Spreadsheet," you'll quickly learn how to harness the full programming power of Excel 2000 — from UserForms to class modules. Take Your Spreadsheets to a Whole New Level

• Master the overall design-development-deployment process for Excel applications
• Take complete control of the Visual Basic Editor environment
• Learn how to work with VBA objects, subprocedures, and functions
• Explore basic to advanced techniques for building intuitive UserForms
• Use VBA to develop robust Excel utilities from the ground up
• Find out how to program Excel to respond to a wide variety of events
• Discover how to automate charts and pivot tables in your applications
• Create custom toolbars, menus, and help files
• Figure out how to manipulate text files and Visual Basic Project components at design time
• Understand what class modules are and how to use them

More than 150 example files on CD-ROM, plus a free copy of John Walkenbach's Power Utility Pak www.hungrybinds.com

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 912 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; Edition Unstated edition (May 21, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764532634
• ISBN-13: 978-0764532634
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #331,860 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #66 in Books > Computers & Technology > Microsoft > Development > VBA

More About the Author

John Walkenbach, a.k.a. Mr. Spreadsheet, is arguably the foremost authority on Excel. His fifty-plus books include Excel 2010 Power Programming with VBA, Excel 2010 Formulas, and the bestselling Excel 2010 Bible, all published by Wiley. He has also written hundreds of articles and created the award-winning Power Utility Pak.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

179 of 180 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable Reference Tool, October 14, 2000

By 

Andrew Tonkovich - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft® Excel 2000 Power Programming with VBA (Paperback)

I spend a lot of time writing Excel macros for my current employer and I can tell you that Excel 2000 Power Programming with VBA has been an invaluable tool. I was familiar with VBA (novice level) before purchasing the book and I feel I've been learning new code at an exponential rate thanks to John Walkenbach's exceptionally clear examples. You really can do some powerful stuff with VBA and Walkenbach is a gifted (and entertaining) teacher. If you have no previous experience, you will be amazed at how easy it is to create professional looking message boxes, input boxes, and even custom multi-page dialog boxes. Walkenbach demonstrates how to add and remove buttons from toolbars and menus, work with cell and range data, use "ActiveX" controls (such as option buttons, check boxes, and combo boxes), run procedures when certain events occur (such as opening a workbook or clicking on the right mouse button), and even how to use API calls to perform functions that are normally outside the scope of VBA (such as identifying the path to the Windows folder or identifying the printer port). All of the code examples (and there are plenty of them) are clearly explained. Walkenbach doesn't just list page after page of code an expect you to figure out what each line accomplishes. Instead, he defines all of the objects and properties he uses and explains the methods he uses to manipulate them. You won't be overwhelmed by the complexity of the code but you will be thrilled about how powerful your macros are.

I'll give you an example from my own experience to demonstrate the usefulness of Excel 2000 Power Programming with VBA. I had created several worksheets templates at my job to be used by other employees. I locked several cells that contained formulas because I didn't want the employees to be able to change them. It quickly came to my attention, though, that people could inadvertently destroy the formulas by using Excel's "cut" function on unlocked cells that the formulas referenced. I needed to disable Excel's "cut" function whenever the workbook in question was active. Using the book I found out how to remove the "cut" button from both the "Edit" menu and the standard toolbar, disable the shortcut menu that pops up whenever you right click on a worksheet object (which also contains the "cut" button), and disable Excel's cell drag and drop feature since it produces the same results as the "cut" function. I just inserted the relevant code in the "ThisWorkbook" module as Walkenbach explains, and now nobody can accidentally screw up the protected formulas.

I think it's important to note, though, that while this book is OK for novice programmers, it assumes the reader is already very familiar with Excel's tools and functions. Don't buy it if you aren't already an advanced Excel end-user. Some previous experience with VBA would also help, but since Walkenbach spends a good portion of text discussing foundational concepts and providing entry-level code snippets, this book can be just as useful to neophytes as it is to intermediate and advanced developers.

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book for VBA programmers and Begineers too, August 9, 2000

By 

Kaushal Vyas (Columbus, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft® Excel 2000 Power Programming with VBA (Paperback)

I have written some Excel macros that work with CSV files. After buying this book I have been able to reduce my code to a great extent. It has added to my knowledge of built in Excel-VBA functions and I am very happy with the purchase. This book can be very well considered an Excel VBA bible.

Here are some of the good points about this book:
1. Code snippets for most frequent tasks. The author uses Excel's built in definitions and makes it look very easy.
2. The examples at the end of each chapter(and on the CD rom). This library is HUGE!. I love it. It includes more than 100 macros. Some macros include batch processing of files, undoing a macro, putting a progress indicator for a macro... and lot others. :)
3. The author, John W provides great support. He replied to me within 24 hours when I emailed a problem with a macro. That was very cool.

All in all, good worth for the money. Good luck

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Book for VBA, January 22, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Microsoft® Excel 2000 Power Programming with VBA (Paperback)

This is a wonderful book which can be used to learn VBA, as well as a reference for later use. This book distinguishes itself from others in these respects: (1) As a C and Fortran programmer, I like a bottom-up, structured programming approach; rules about the language, semantics, and other useful issues. This book layes it out in 4 solid chapters. Then, it goes on to describe Userforms and Controls, more advanced VB concepts. This is great for somebody with a Science/Engineering/Finance bent.

(2) All other VB books I have read take a muddled approach wherby they depict fragmented examples, usually about how to record a macro and see the ensuing code (as opposed to writing code from scratch) and after a few pages you realize the utter INCOHERENCE. This book highlights the structured programming approach: few basic rules and principles, build on from there.

A solid book, along with a useful CD. Additionally, a clear and conversational style of writing makes this a really goob book.