Customer Reviews

Microsoft® Excel 2002 Visual Basic® for Applications Step by Step (Step by Step (Microsoft))

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is clearly a training manual for non-programmers wanting to do Excel macros. It is not intended for experienced programmers except as a quick overview. Nevertheless, the author introduces object-oriented programming terminology early and uses it consistently in an easy (most of the time), non-threatening way. Non-programmers, who carefully work through each of the excellent examples, without knowing it, will have picked up the basics of object-oriented programming while finding countless ways to automate their day-to-day work.

As macro writing becomes more and more like regular programming, learning to use an editor and program development environment becomes more important. Nice use is made here of the VB Editor with emphasis on the Object Browser and the Immediate window - preparing the reader for perhaps moving on to more sophisticated development environments such as Visual Studio, which of course is not covered in this book. (Programming Office applications is included in the latest Visual Studio beta.)

It is a joy to find a book that teaches macros with VBA in a way that permits easily moving on to more general software development with VB. The early Office macro languages were well removed from "real" programming; but VBA has changed that. OK, so perhaps it is softball and not baseball. This is a great book to give to an administrative Microsoft Office workaholic who is restless for more knowledge and might just become a self-taught developer.

This book has a 2001 copyright; but as I write in July 2003 I still cannot find a better first book for VBA with Excel for non-programmers.

On July 24, 2003, I want to add that there are two speed bumps in the book where the content is decidedly more difficult than the balance of the book. The first, midway through the book, is a chapter on manipulating Pivot Tables; and the second is an overly-fancy final chapter with lots of Pivot Table and graphics content. Both of these chapters are useful; but the level of difficulty seems two steps up from the other chapters. Perhaps these two chapters prompted some of the negative comments by others. You can safely skip these two (of twelve) chapters if you wish.

I have had bad luck with most programming books. I bought this one as a VBA reference to fill in the blanks of some of the others. This is by far the best programming book I have ever read, and the first one that I read cover to cover. Not only does this book provide the intuition and practical examples, it does so in a readable and accessible fashion. With it I not only improved my programming skills, but learned some Excel tricks that I have never before seen. I highly recommend.

I read this book two editions ago and it helped me convert all the workbooks for a large California bank from Lotus and older Excel formats. The book teaches you to use the Range object which is the main Object in Excel. Once you know it you can do most things with a little help from the great macro recording facility of Excel--you just generalize a few terms and apply your new knowledge of the Range Object. Thank you Reed!

The easy to understand text and practical examples in the book have enabled me to really exploit the potential of Excel. Reed really understands the nuts and bolts of the application and communicates that to the reader.

I've taught VBA for a few years, and this book is fantastic. If you are trying to learn VBA from the position of an intermediate Excel user, it is a GREAT way to do so. The extensive coverage of the range object is invaluable, as is the coverage on VBA's debugging tools. I've even recommended this book to Access students just to get a better handle on how to use the VBA debugging tools, because the topic is so well covered! The index leaves a bit to be desired, thus falling somewhat short as a reference tool afterwards - but if you're looking for a nuts and bolts tutorial that is practical and fun, this is it!

I've recently advanced to a more proffessional approach to Excel, and as such I found this book answered a lot of my prayers... Although the index is useless, the examples are really helpfull, and if you get the hang of Reed's way of indexing topics, this book is a jewel!

Although this book is indeed introductory and would not qualify as a reference manual it is the best resource that I have found to teach VBA object programming to my students. The examples are great and with the exception of Chapter 6 on Pivot Tables, maybe too difficult for a beginner, I agree with the good reviews of this book.

This book has great examples, is clear and well organized. The thing that I find falls short with books relating to VBA libraries, is that there isn't a nice little short reference containing the relevant classes, objects, syntax, and examples to call the library functions and methods. If the authors were to include this very helpful aid, I'd rate this book a 5 in a heartbeat.

I have may books on excel and vba for excel. This is the best self help book on vba in excel that I have encountered.

As a novice in VBA programming, I found the case study approach easy to follow and informative. It is definitely not a reference guide (see John Walkenbach's numerous works for a more in-depth reference), but walks the reader step-by-step through VBA.