Customer Reviews

Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic for Applications 5 in 21 Days, Third Edition

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I used Matthew Harris' "21-day" book to teach VBA during Spring '99 quarter at South Puget Sound Community College. It is not really made for the classroom (no CD-ROM, instructor must make up his own quizes, etc.), but generally good in the first two thirds of the book. The last few chapters begin to falter, however: #19 does not treat Automation (OLE) too clearly nor explain certain oddities (e.g., unexpected 'recursion' when linking an Excel file to Word). Also, a promise of showing how to use Windows' own FileOpen screens in Chapter 20 is never fulfilled. Chapter 21 is a poorly-coordinated grabbag of leftovers not presented well. Still, the book is probably the best in this poorly covered market. Although it treats of Word and Excel only, with over 1,000 pages it is a fairly good introduction to the subject.

I cannot emphasize enough the utility of this book! I had NO programming experience but since reading this book, I am prolific in writing code. The book progresses logically and slowly step by step allowing a self-paced environment. The best attribute of this book is that it is also a great reference book. I dont expect this book to ever be obsolete. Well worth the price and time/effort needed to read it!!

Hi -

I had to write and tell you what a great job Matthew Harris did in "Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic for Applications 5 in 21 Days (Third Edition)". I am a computer consultant and a Certified Technical Trainer. Good books, especially at the neophyte level for programming, are hard to find. Most of them make assumptions that the reader has prior programming knowledge, which is often not the case at all. I purchased this book initially as a recommendation to someone who wanted to learn VBA, but had no prior experience even with macros, much less programming.

The book is clear, clean, and thorough in its treatment of the subject. It is also pleasantly devoid of typos, grammatical errors, missing text, etc. which makes me crazy in too many of the books I read, especially computer books. The examples make sense and flow smoothly from the very basic to gradual, increased complexity. I will use this book whenever possible in my classes on introductory VBA.

Thank you for providing me with such an excellent tool.

Sincerely,

Linda Dawn Bozick, President, Enterprises, Inc.

There are several handbooks about VBA but none of them tell you as much about Object Oriented Programming as this book [in a way that can be understood].

This book is very well suited for anyone with some advanced programming experience and knowledge of Excel.

I like it!

If you're new to programming, this book delivers. Good coverage of important basics. Line by line hand holding on example code provided. Clear explanations. An excellent beginner's book. Not that good for intermediate or advanced levels. Its still a good reference, but advanced topics aren't covered.

Good overall lessons. However, I have not worked my way through the whole book yet, but at a glance I have noticed that there is not much treatment of Access issues, which is why I wanted a VBA book. I went for the book thinking it would cover each application equally, but I should have looked more closely. Still, Access, Outlook, etc., should not be listed on the cover with equal billing.

I only rated this book at 3 because of 2 points. First,the book mainly use Word and Excel for examples and the book cover list include Access, Outlook and Project as well. I know it is nearly impossible to cover all these (particularly Access)in a 21 days book. So do not put them on the front cover. Second, if you are experienced VB programmer, you might only read the second half of the book.

I wish I had looked at this book sooner. It is the latest of the three books I've bought on VBA 5. I've used it (misused - as a reference - is probably more accurate) for about a month, and still think it is the best I've found. It is almost comprehensive (I couldn't find the Val() function). But what's missing is not essential for the target audience (Casual-Advanced programmers). For experienced programmers I would only supplement it with Dan Rahmel's "VB Programmer's Reference" and a more advanced VB5 (not VBA) book like Cornell and Jezak's "Core Visual Basic 5".

Why did I buy it? My original objective was to program Excel 97 well. Because of its title, at first I avoided this book. But several decades of experience working with 2, 3 and 4-GLs and relational DBMSes left me hungry for more information. The local college library had a copy.

If the author ever produces a successor, with an appendix that contains a list of all the VB (and VBA) k! eywords cross-indexed to their treatment in the text, I'd like another copy.

Having completed about half the book I can say that the examples are clear and straightforward. Understanding how Macros work can help you to crack them open and write better, more powerful macros than ever before! This text will also help you to understand Visual Basic as the syntax is nearly identical, a big plus in today's corporate computing environment.