Overview
Experienced Excel users who are not developers learn how to customize the software for more advanced applications. Ideal for users who favor a hands-on learning approach versus conceptual discussions of Excel's features.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewFor years, VBA has let you extend Excel in virtually any direction. And if you want to extend it to the Web, Excel 2002’s XML and ASP support lets you do that, too. This book covers all three -- from simple recorded macros through complete business applications that post XML data to web servers.
Julitta Korol’s flattened the learning curve for new programmers: Just start at the beginning, follow her flow of explanation, and before long, you’re doing some pretty powerful stuff. Start by recording a macro and exploring the code Excel wrote. Next, walk through VBA’s “terms and rules”: modules, procedures, syntax, objects, variables, data types, constants, subroutines, and functions. By Chapter 7, you’ve mastered decision making, looping, and arrays -- all you need to accomplish an awful lot.
Korol now moves on to manipulating files, folders, and other applications with VBA (for instance, using Word to generate letters containing worksheet data and transforming worksheets into Access databases). She also shows you how to build dialog boxes, menus, and toolbars that make your apps much friendlier.
Next, you’re on to the Web. You’ll create hyperlinks with VBA; publish worksheets to the Web (complete with graphs); and run queries that import web data. You’ll create XML spreadsheets (and use Excel with existing XML data); format XML with stylesheets; use “XML Data Islands” for hassle-free viewing of XML data; and use XML, Excel, and databases together. It all comes together in a complete timesheet application that collects users’ data into Access databases and lets them check their data from the Web. You’ve come a long way in a short time. Bill Camarda
Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks for Dummies, Second Edition.