Definitive Guide to Excel VBA, 2/e

• Covers Excel 2000 to 2003 (beta 2)
• Explains how to access Web Services from Excel programs
• Shows you how to process lists and XML data with Excel 2003

Microsoft's Excel is not only a powerful spreadsheet and graphics tool – it contains a programming language called Visual Basic for Application (VBA). VBA allows you to automate simple tasks, but also enables you to create full-featured applications that make Excel users more productive. In The Definitive Guide to Excel VBA, Second Edition, Kofler provides the definitive coverage of VBA for Excel by showing how it can be used to implement real-world business solutions. Designed to be useful to programmers who have never used VBA before, it nevertheless covers advanced topics needed for users already familiar with VBA.

First, Kofler introduces VBA and shows examples of the kinds of tasks that can be performed. He then introduces the Excel object model, focusing on the unique characteristics of programming and debugging code associated with a spreadsheet. The next few chapters cover menus, toolbars, forms and templates – the tools for creating customized user interfaces and full-featured applications. He then moves on to a broad range of advanced topics, including automating graphs and diagrams, accessing external databases from Excel and analyzing data using grouping and pivot-tables. He even covers ActiveX automation and the access of Web Services using the Web Service Toolkit.

Throughout the book Kofler never loses sight of the real-world problems faced by Excel programmers. He shows you how to avoid undocumented or poorly documented problems that arise when programming Excel using VBA – the kind of practical knowledge that is usually gained only through hard-won experience.

Table of Contents

Part One An Intuitive Approach
Chapter 1: Writing Your First Macro
Chapter 2: What’s New in Excel 2000
Part Two Fundamentals
Chapter 3: The Development Environment
Chapter 4: VBA Concepts
Chapter 5: Techniques of Programming
Chapter 6: Debugging, Protection When Errors Arise
Chapter 7: Forms (Microsoft Forms Library)
Chapter 8: Menus and Toolbars
Part Three Application
Chapter 9: Templates, Smart Forms
Chapter 10: Charts and Drawing Objects (Shapes)
Chapter 11: Data Management in Excel
Chapter 12: Access to External Data
Chapter 13: Data Analysis in Excel
Chapter 14: VBA Programming for Pros
Part Four Reference
Chapter 15: Object Reference
Appendix: Excel 2003 Beta 2
References