Customer Reviews

Using Excel Visual Basic for Applications

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

 

 

I own nearly a dozen books on Visual Studio(VS), Visual Basic(VB), and Visual Basic for Applications(VBA). For the past 3 years, I have architected personal / workplace solutions, and have been mostly self-taught through books and online learning opportunities.

After finding "Using Excel Visual Basic For Applications," by Jeff Webb, it has become hands-down my primary resource. "The Excel Bible," by John Walkenbach used to be my book of choice, but where Walkenbach concentrates more on explaining Excel, Jeff Webb has developed his effort to elaborate on VBA, and is focused on object-oriented programming.

For instance, Chapter 5 of 21 includes a section on the 'Application Object.' Starting with an explanation of what is an Application Object, a chart spanning three pages, consisting of 'Properties and Methods' applicable to an Object follows. It is analogous to VB's Object Browser, since both provide the Developer a directory listing. Then Jeff Webb steps into each entry and provides explanations of what happens to the object, like VB Help, and a code snippit. For example:

[Application.]ActiveCell

Bracketed items being optional, this example would mean the snippit is merely 'ActiveCell', and can be inserted into the code of a function or subroutine ie.

Sub Subname()
ActiveCell
Exit Sub

This procedure will return the range of where the Excel cursor is, also known as the "Input Focus."

If what you have just read makes sense to you but don't understand, you could benefit from owning "Using Excel Visual Basic for Applications." If there is no comprehension, I suggest reading, 'Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Bible' by John Walkenbach from WILEY Publishing.

PS. I am not affiliated with QUE, Jeff Webb, WILEY, or John Walkenbach, and did not receive any compensation for this commentary about either book, just in case the thought occurred...

An excellent reference book for programmers who have some basic familiarity with VBA. Webb does not drown his reader in pages of useless listings or chimpanzee instructions (Go to the Menu Bar, click File, click Open, click OK, duh) that have seemed to overtake so many other training books. Instead, he provides an intelligent tour of VBA. Might be outdated, but still worth it!

First of all the examples are not put on a CD, nor can you download them from the publishers website. That makes it a little frustrating. Secondly, it is not very indepth. So if you just want basic explanations on VBA "stuff" then go for it, else find another book. I suppose my first tip off to not buy the book was that the author works for microsoft. Another persons comment was quite appropriate - it is a rehash of the help (and just as helpful (not)). No hard feelings Mr. Webb.

Ugh, I bought this book hoping it would explain some very simple operations for me. These are the types of operations that you would normally us SAS or Minitab or STATA for--but with the all the promise of Excel, I couldn't resist. What a mistake! Don't buy this book until you are sure it is what you want!

This book has two sections: An explanation of fundamentals and a programmer's reference. I bought the book primarily due to the comprehensive reference, but after using the book to try to write VBA code, I discovered that I needed more examples to examine. Don't get me wrong, it's a good book as programming reference, but it probably shouldn't be your first book on Excel VBA. I think the book would have been much more useful with a companion CDROM that contained a hyperlinked programming reference.

I wanted to update my last review of this book. Since I last wrote, I have been doing a lot more Excel VBA coding and I find I keep coming back to this book. I also bought Walkenbach's "Excel for Windows 95" and Wells/Harshbarger's "Microsoft Excel 97 Developer's Handbook" and I use this one the most. I just wish it were updated for Excel 97 since VBA has changed. I find the VBA on line help in Excel 97 less helpful than in Excel 95 and when I turn to Webb's book, I find what I need!

I have some knowledge of VB and wanted to get a look at VBA, so a friend loaned me this book. It seems to be very complete and well organized, but so far the code examples I have tried don't work. This may be because I am using Excel 2000 and the book was written in 1996. I have been able to make the code samples work by just fiddling with the code until it runs. However, this is a frustrating experience for someone who likes to learn hands on, and would probably be a disaster for a brand-new programmer.

I wish I had read the reviews here at Amazon before I went to the trouble of buying this book. It is going back.

Thank you very much. This was the first time that I had purchased something out of my country by Internet and every thing was attended. I would say to keep their work with this philosophy.

This book is just not useful anymore. The code is old and the dialog boxes don't look or function the same anymore. I'm not new to programming, but a beginner would be totally lost. As it is I am going to send this one back and get a more up to date one, just in case I can't jam my way out of it. There also might be (and probably are) newer features not covered in this book.

Aside from that, it looks as if it could have been a great book in its time. When are you guys going to publish an up to date one?