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Excel 2000 VBA : Programmers Reference
by John Green, Stephen Bullen, Felipe Martins, Brian Johnson
List Price: $24.99
Our Price: $17.49
ISBN: 0764544012
Publisher: Wrox (June, 1999)
Edition: Paperback
Sales Rank: 41,475
Average Customer Rating: 3.39 out of 5
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Rating: 4 out of 5
Overall, an Excellent Reference Book with Bonus Examples
This is obviously a WROX attempt at creating an O'Reilly "Nutshell" book and I think they did a great job, sans the index which is totally awful. NOTE: While I don't have it, the index for the comparable WROX book for Excel XP/2002 looked 200% better. Nonetheless it is what it is, a REFERENCE book with the bonus that you don't normally see in O'Reilly books, of an in-depth explanation of some of Excel's object models in the earlier chapters. The chapters on the Range object model are worth the cost alone!I had VBA experience with Access but very little with Excel. Within 1 month of utilizing this book, I was able to to show my employer that I deserved the new consultation job at a major pharmaceutical company and got it. While the index is very poor, this is an excellent REFERENCE book, even for beginners and those working with Excel 97. Most of what is in the book applies to '97 as well. The price, like most WROX books, is also very reasonable, especially for the content. You will need an Internet Service Provider to download the code examples in the earlier parts of the book though, another reason it only gets 4 stars. I don't agree, especially since anyone can buy a burnable CD for less than .25 now, with the philosophy that it substantially adds to the cost. Given most book publishers inclusion of a CD, I would think WROX would augment the quality of their publications by including the CD of source code/information for a nominal increased price. The costs involved are extremely reasonable to the business standards of their industry.
Rating: 5 out of 5
A great resource for a developing Excel programmer.
Those with no programming backround may find this a little advanced. I first read Walkenbach's Power Programming for Excel 2000 which was very good and then followed with this book so I had some familiarity of the subject matter. I found this book very helpful in teaching me some useful techniques dealing with range names, custom menus, error routines and the Excel 2000 Object Model. Most of the chapters require a solid effort in reading the material and experimenting to really understand it. They also have a website (Wrox.com) that allows you to download code so you don't have to key it in (although I found keying it in helpful toward learning).
Overall, it's not a book to be read casually but requires time, patience and focus. The best approach if you're trying to teach yourself is to read a couple of pages per day AND even if you are an experienced VBA programmer to start with Chapter 1, History of Spreadsheets followed by Chapter 2, Primer for Excel VBA. There's usually a trick or technique that you can pick up that you didn't know prior. Then continue with each chapter after that. Also it is helpful to go back and read the early chapters again as your skill level improves. I found this approach to be a good self teaching tool.The index falls a little short so the idea of using it as a reference without reading it first will probably not work too well. I think it is better suited as a teaching book that flows logically so you have to be willing to devote the time necessary to each chapter. I usually put a check mark in the margin indicating that I read the material which was helpful if I was away from it for a few days.
I would highly recommend this book to those who are serious about improving their skill as an Excel VBA programer.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Excellent Read for anyone who uses Excel
By far my favorite programming book, and here's my explanation:I'm not sure if some of the people reviewing this book were supposed to be reading John Green's "Excel 2000 VBA : Programmers Reference" in the first place. If you have never used Excel, or never written your own script or program before, THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR YOU. This book was written for those who are either knowledgeable in Excel, wishing to learn programming, or vice versa, and its BY FAR THE BEST way to get there. To give this book anything less than four stars (and I personally give it five) shows a complete lack of basic Excel and/or programming comprehension. Excel 2000 VBA: Programmer's Reference starts with the basic concepts of functions (Subs), variables, loops, if statements, etc. But just like any other book from any other programming languange, don't expect to be fluent after reading the first 2 chapters. Take time each day to read as much as you can, and run the examples in the VB editor. I have done 90% of the examples in the book, adapting many of them for my own use. Studying this text cover to cover is the best way to read it, as it is structured much like any college math course, where each chapter builds upon the chapter that precedes it. So avoid reading this book like an encyclopędia, as it will leave holes in your knowledge of the Excel Object Model. The in-depth explanations of advanced concepts such as dynamic arrays, object referencing, names, API calls, and many more untapped resources of Excel are what make this book head and shoulders above the rest. The index can be problematic for those not experienced in Object-Oriented programming, as it is organized by object types, and not alphabetically by each object. This thinking follows much more along that of a native programmer, so to proggers goes the advantage, but at the same time, press F2 within the Excel VBA editor, and you can read definitions for any object alphabetically. I believe John Green organized the index as it is intentionally, knowing that those not familiar with Excel could fall back on the Object reference in the VBA editor (via F2 on keyboard). I think it is a shame that this book received several bads reviews, because in reading their posts, it seemed that not one of them should have been reading this book in the first place. It is a "Programmer Reference" as the name suggests. To those who didn't understand the most basic programming concepts and still decided to purchase the book, that is simply your fault for not reading the title, and is not the fault of John Green, whose masterpiece is a credit to the programming world at large, and another triumph WRT Excel. Bravo, John... Bravo...
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