Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't quite live up to its title ...
Review: You have to wonder when the author states in the preface ..."I spent more time developing the examples on the CD_ROM than I did writing chapters" ... and it shows. Information seems to be somewhat scattered. In an 850 page book on "power programming with VBA", it takes more than 100 pages before the author really gets into VBA.
The author recommends using comments in code, but many examples lack sufficient comments which would greatly aid the reader. The author also recommends using OPTION EXPLICIT (which requires the user to declare variable types), but variables are undefined in many examples which makes the examples more difficult to understand. The author does not recommend (and does not use) prefixes on variable names to identify types. This variable naming convention, which is widely used, would also make his examples more understandable.
In my opinion, several chapters appear out of place. The chapter on reading/writing text files, which appears at the end of the book, should be covered much earlier. The chapter on class modules is the second last chapter even though the author uses class modules in the examples in at least 4 previous chapters. The author states that "complete coverage" of class modules is beyond the scope of the book, but fails to explain some concepts used in the class modules in the prior chapters.
The Power Utility Pak included on the CD-ROM is a demo version for Excel 97 with many features non-operational. The book does includes a coupon for a FREE copy of Power Pak 2000 ... but it will cost you S&H.
Although the book has relatively few errors, the errors I have detected and submitted to the author have apparently "fallen on deaf ears" and have not been published on the author's website for the benefit of other readers.
I think the author should have spent more time making the content of the book match the title of the book. The majority of the book deals with Excel 97 material. Very little information in this book is specific to Excel 2000. In my opinion the book should be rated for a reader level of "Beginner to Intermediate" rather than "Intermediate to Advanced". At least 100 pages of "boiler plate stuff" should be eliminated and replaced with "advanced stuff".
NEVERTHELESS, despite all my criticisms ... Good Excel books at the intermediate/advanced level are hard to find. Readers can obtain valuable information by reading the text and carefully following the author's examples in both the book and on the CD-ROM.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellant Resource
Review: I have found this book to be absolutely fantastic. I am not sure it is for the beginner, but for someone who has a little knowledge of VB it is an excellant refresher. The book is well written and seems to flow in a logical sequence. It is very easy to understand and examples are plentiful. I have been tinkering with macros in Excel for about a year and the book is bringing VBA and Excel together for me. I have have already cut some of the coding in my modules in half by using the techniques found in the book. This book is definitely going to be come one of my major references when it comes to using VBA in Excel. I have certainly gotten my money's worth out of this book and will be looking for other books written by John Walkenbach.
Rating:
Summary: Never say never...
Review: I am a software developer, and I've never liked the computer "big books" published for lay people.Until this one. This book is well-written, well-organized, well-thought-out, and well worth every penny. Instead of complex examples (and I've seen plenty of them), John presents simple, brilliantly clear examples that are distilled down to show the exact point he is trying to make, which makes the book very easy to follow.
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