Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 All the frills, no real substance June 20, 2008
A. D. Hudson
I bought this book as someone with previous experience of programming in other languages and using excel for various tasks, but with no knowledge of macro building and vba. This book concentrates far too much on the cosmetic adjustments that can be made to forms and sheets at runtime, rather than addressing the real work that I (and I guess many other people) will be looking to do with excel vba i.e. reliably automating repetitive and intensive tasks. I've read a few programming books, and this one doesn't really rank along side the better ones, since it doesn't even really attempt to play to the strengths of the language it is teaching.
 I'm very disappointed with all but one of the reviews here January 23, 2008
M Marr (Kent, UK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought this book due to it's excellent overall rating
The contents of the book in no way match these ratings
Layout is very poor, examples weak and insufficently explained and topics generally flit between subjects so the reader is forced to trace back to previous paragraphs.
I've read numerous technical publications in the past 10 years, and this one comes very very close to being the worst one I have encountered.
 Easy, Clear, Lean! February 9, 2007
Francisco Marco Serrano (Spain)
It's like a recipe book: get the bits, add the pieces, bake and eat it. However, just one comment, you still need to be proficient in Excel.
Bottom line: perfect for the Excel VBA learner!
 Quality book - low price March 12, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
An easy to read book that is well structured in how it takes you through the mysteries of VBA. There is no boring information or padding such as 'History of macros'. Instead it takes you through all the technical terms and methodologies in an understandable way. Chapters 12 and 13 on the object model are really detailed and show you what can be done if you put your mind to it. Plenty of tricks to do things on a spreadsheet that you can't do from the Excel menu - ever changed the shape of a comments box?. Great information on data manipulation. Chapter 16 gives you all you need to link to an Access database and pull the data across into Excel. Once you have the data in Excel, half a dozen chapters give fully worked examples to show you how to manipulate this data from inside your macro using code you can understand. Take a look on the Amazon 'See Inside feature' on this book. One of the most interesting topics was creating Excel Add Ins. This is effectively a standalone file that you can give to anyone so that they can use your code and ideas in Excel. You can even adapt the Excel menu structure when your add in loads for a really professional appearance. If you use Excel a lot macro automation is the key to working efficiently. This book is the best I have seen and the price is very competitive too.
not the best February 28, 2006
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I'm suprised at the previous reviews. I have been programming in VBA since 1995 and had Elizabeth Boonins book, which was excellent for beginners (not now available). This book is not an inch on the previous book. I would say that the choice of book is dependent on what you wish to do with VBA.My main interest is data manipulation. I would say this book is not clear or well organised, although it gives you a taste of the capabilities of Excel VBA. Some interesting parts, but I do not recommend it to students who I teach VBA to. I think I'd go for the Excel for Dummies now instead.
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