Mastering VBA 6 [With CDROM]

Have read the other reviews, and feel the need to counter a few points. This is a great book for nonprogrammers who are proficient with an application such as Word or Excel and want to take the next step to getting their application to "jump through hoops." (Or who just want to get a taste for programming.)Background: I'm a tech writer with no programming education or experience other than some minor html and scripting I've picked up on the job. This book enabled me to self-educate myself to a fairly proficient level with VBA in a matter of two months. Out of all the "learn this skill quick" books that I've bought, this one has delivered the most value by far.A few counterpoints: The reader from Naskayuna says the author spends pages discussing techniques that can be found in any other book. Those pages of discussion are what make this book invaluable to a beginner. Every code example the author gives (I didn't count, but I'd say there are scores) is followed by a thorough, step-by-step explanation of what each line of code means. For the experienced programmer (apparently this reviewer is one), this probably gets old. But for the inexperienced user it does several things. Your confidence goes up each time you can look at a coded procedure and understand everything that is happening from the first step to the last. Your VBA lessons get driven in by repetition. And you don't spend as much time flipping back trying to locate previous concepts, because the code you are looking at is explained right there. I own another VBA book and have checked out two others from my employer's training library. There is no comparison! This author's approach to explaining sample code is by far the best for VBA novices without a programming background.The reader from Walnut CA complained that there weren't enough examples and that the first 100 pages offer only an agonizing explanation of all the menu components in the VBA editor. The reviewer is basically right about the first 100 pages, but missed a very important point. My experience differed in that I read some of the introductory stuff up front, then skipped right over most of those 100 pages to dive into the practical, hands-on stuff. Then I just used the first 100 pages or so as a resource when I needed to know more about how something worked. In fact, I think the author actually recommends this strategy early in the book! It worked like a charm for me. Maybe the reviewer didn't get past the first 100 pages, because if there's one thing this book definitely does NOT lack, it is hands-on examples.Last counterpoint: The first reviewer (March 2000) says there's a lot of stuff you won't see here. I don't think it's possible in a single book to cover all the concepts of a huge topic like VBA and still give plenty of hands-on practice. I liked the balance of conceptual explanations and hands-on practice. I also liked the fact that the author spends a lot of time telling you how to get help beyond the book. He spend

This book will give you information and knowledge that you need before learning to be a programmer.