Excel 2003 VBA Programmer's Reference (Programmer to Programmer)

Rating:
Summary: A must book for VBA programming
Review: As a practicing progammer, VBA is one of those languages I knew I had to learn sooner or later. This book was a godsend, it covers everything you will ever want to know about VBA and Excel progamming. The book begin with a primer in Excel and VBA, with every chapter the level of learning increases. There are worked examples, codes and screenshots that facilitate understanding of the theory. The writing style is simple and clear, nonprogrammers will be able to understand every concept. It's a big book(over 1000 pages)but one that I enjoyed reading.



Rating:
Summary: an advanced reference manual
Review: Please keep in mind that this book is a reference. So don't be deterred by its bulk. Presumably, you have already programmed in Excel, as opposed to just being a user of it. But the first half of the book can be used as a refresher text. It exhaustively covers the span of Excel programming.

As might be expected from a reference, the level of discussion can get somewhat involved. For example, consider the chapter on object oriented theory, as applied to VBA. It starts by explaining the differences between a class and an interface, and how both support polymorphism. And how "interface polymorphism is orthogonal to class polymorphism". Whew! The authors don't waste any time. You really need some prior exposure to object oriented ideas to fully appreciate the chapter.

If you are an experienced Excel developer, the book may be an ideal reference. Otherwise, you may also need other explanatory texts to accompany this book.

Rating:
Summary: A great book destroyed
Review: Sorry for the length of the review, but don't make the same mistake I did by buying this book.

When I buy a book, I buy it for its content, which I assume is accurate, complete, timely and written by authors I trust and respect. The content of this book is neither accurate nor complete, doesn't cover the major additions to Excel 2003 and appears to have been updated solely by a new author unknown in the Excel developer community.

If I want support, I'll ask my questions in the Excel newsgroups, where I'm confident they'll be answered by someone who actually knows Excel and uses it daily.

I've had the 2002 version of this book sitting on my desk for a year or so and I find myself regularly refering to it. For me, the first half of the book containing the narrative about VBA is the best bit and much more useful than the object model listing in the appendices. When I read (on Amazon.co.uk) that the appendices were now downloadable and had been replaced by more than 400 pages of new material, I immediately ordered this update. I was expecting lots more of the same information-packed writing I'd enjoyed in the 2002 version, covering the topics mentioned above, such as "Object-oreinted theory and VBA", "How to use VB6 and VB.NET" and "Advanced error handling and debugging methods". All great stuff!

Unfortunately, NONE of that is actually in the book! The object model appendices have NOT been removed, are NOT downloadable or searchable and have NOT been replaced by new material! I can only think that the 'Editorial Reviews' on this page were written from an initial outline that the authors didn't deliver.

Already disappointed by it not matching the sales patter, I began to read the book, only to find that the four authors of the 2002 version (Bovey, Bullen, Green and Rosenberg) didn't actually contribute to this update! The new author, Kimmel, seems to have done the update by himself - and it shows!

As far as I can see, there are three new chapters. The first is a totally impenetrable and theoretical one about Objects, interfaces, polymorphism, inheritance and lots of other jibberish - with nothing relating that to VBA or how we might use it. The second is a basic chapter about debugging and testing (certainly not the "Advanced debugging and error handling techniques" promised). The other new chapter is about XML, which mostly repeats the old material in the "Excel and the Internet" chapter, says that Excel 2003 and can now open and save xml files (with File > Open), but completely omits anything about mapping XML elements to cells using the new 'XML Source' task pane! Those three chapters have been added without increasing the page count much, so the rest of the chapters have been 'edited' to make room - often by deleting those little bits of information essential to applying the concepts to our own code. His edits also included removing all the variable naming conventions from the example code!

Kimmel has also restructured the book, so instead of the 'gradual increase in complexity' approach of the 2002 version, he's put all the 'theoretical' chapters up front - so we learn about writing userforms, database access, the windows API etc before we learn how to open a workbook or select a range! I can only think that C. Walker's review was about the 2002 version, because his comment of "with every chapter the level of learning increases" certainly doesn't apply in my opinion.

The biggest problem with this edition, though, is that Kimmel obviously knows nothing about Excel. There are so many errors, inaccuracies and incompleteness that I'm amazed it passed the editing stage. Surely anyone can spot the error in his tip of closing addins from the Immediate window using the command:

AddinWorkbooks("TheAddin.xls").Close

I guess he didn't know whether to use the Addins or Workbooks collections, so used both! And wouldn't that be an 'xla' extension?

Bottom line: Do NOT buy this book. If you have the 2002 version, there's nothing extra worth having, and lots of new errors to stumble over. If you don't have the 2002 version, buy that version instead of this. Everything in it applies equally to Excel 2003, and the biggest new additions in Excel 2003 (XML Mapping and the VB.NET integration) aren't mentioned in this version anyway.

And if you're like me and want to read more from the original four authors, a new book by them has just appeared on Amazon.com - Professional Excel Development - due out in February. I can't wait!

Rating:
Summary: Everything is Here, Organization a bit confusing.
Review: This huge (1176 page) book is intended for Excel users and programmers from beginning to advanced, this book presumes you have a reasonable working knowledge of excel and a full installation of the software. It does not presume that you have a working knowledge of VBA, after all, that's it's subject.

In fact, chapter 1 is titled Primer in Excel VBA. Excel VBA is, of course, a specialized version of Microsoft's standard VBA, where those specific points that cater to spread sheet manipulation are differrent from the VBA's associated with other parts of the Microsoft Office package.

This book gives a general introduction to VBA, but it is entirely within the context of Excel. This is indeed a Primer. It starts with how you open the Visual Basic Editor and goes on from there. Generally the book grows step by step. But not always. ==On page 83 it says: "OnTime - You can use the OnTime method to schedule a macro to run sometime in the future." OK, I understand this. But only 7 pages later it says: "VBA does support interface polymorphism. Interface polymorphism is orthogonal to class polymorphism." Huh? Does this help me schedule something to run in the future? Is this supposed to mean anything at all to me? Since I have no idea what it's talking about am I supposed to go look up all these new words somewhere? Is this really going to help me? Anyway, you skip a few chapters and you're back into getting some useful information about things like creating user forms.

All in all I rate the book quite high. Everything you always wanted to know is there. And it is supposed to be a reference manual, not a tutorial. My only complaint is that I think it could have organized a bit better.

Rating:
Summary: From the author
Review: With many products one never knows who the engineer is. However, with a book one immediately knows the name of the author or authors. More importantly, as an author and student I know how difficult learning can be even with the best prose, analogies, intent, or circumstances. For this reason I clearly indicate my email address ([e-mail]) in every book I write, and if you still don't "get it" I am happy to actively assist. Even if a difficulty isn't precisely within the framework of this book, I will still assist to the extent possible.

Many great authors contributed to Excel VBA 2003 either with content from its predecessor or new content, but several authors elected not to contribute new content to this revised edition. What is important is the support and resources that are available to every one of our readers.

Thank you for buying and thank you for reading. Paul.