Professional Excel Development: The Definitive Guide to Developing Applications Using Microsoft Excel and VBA

by Stephen Bullen, Rob Bovey, Dennis Wallentin, et al.

Book Overview

Microsoft Excel can be much more than just a spreadsheet. It has become adevelopment platform in it own right. Applications written using Excel are partof many corporations' core suites of business-critical applications. In spite ofthis, Excel is too often thought of as a hobbyist's platform. While there arenumerous titles on Excel and VBA, until now there have been none thatprovide an overall explanation of how to develop professional-quality...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0321262506
• ISBN13: 9780321262509
• Release Date: February 2005
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Length: 936 Pages
• Weight: 2.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 6.8" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A great how-to book for serious Excel users

When picking up this book, I was an advanced Excel user. Having discovered most of its features by trial-and-error, and coming from a fairly solid programming background, I understood well the interaction between the underlying object model and the sheets appearing on the screen to end users. I have also crafted many sophisticated worksheet formulas, and explored just about every suggestion of literature such as "Excel Hacks" and "Advanced Excel Report Development". Professional Excel Development offers ideas and tools necessary for designing full-fledged, robust Excel-based applications. It does not spend time explaining how various features work, but rather goes into detail on how to put these features to best use. Here is what I picked up from this book, together with the authors' Excel 2003 VBA reference: * ways to leverage Excel's built-in features to avoid excessive coding * advanced design techniques for using Excel as a WYSIWYG interface designer * techniques for creating custom menu bars and programming their behavior * various means of interacting with the user and simplifying their sessions by providing guidance as to which steps need to be taken * restricting the Excel environment to take on the appearance of a product condusive of the goal stated in previous bullet * using VBA in conjunction with the Excel object model to create powerful object-oriented structures for spreadsheet-based applications * programming Excel-based solutions in an executable to provide a more standalone application * using Windows API calls to increase robustness of the application One key feature of this book is its consistent approach. The authors maintain a consistent structure, using the same application throughout the book for their "practical example" to demonstrate new features made available through the material in each chapter. Also, the "best practices" approach provides a level of consistency that is generally desired of anywhat sophisticated applications. Useable modules are provided on the accompanying CD, ready to be used in readers' own applications. In the beginning, the authors explain the audiences for which this book may or may not be intended. They separate these into users, power users, VBA developers, Excel developers, and professional developers. The latter three categories of users will benefit the most from this book, each in his/her own way. VBA developers will learn how to use built-in features (I think this is where I started); Excel developers will learn how to incorporate Excel-based solutions into larger applications; Professional developers will be exposed to a great variety of "best practices", optimization techniques, and various other means for developing consistency in Excel applications. If you do not fall into the latter three categories, you might not pick up much from this book. It is not useless to you, however; you can still find many worksheet/userform design techniques, and get an introduct

Looking to take your Excel to the next level? BUY THIS BOOK!!!!

I've been working with Excel for years... This is by far the BEST EXCEL DEVELOPMENT BOOK I've ever seen. It paid for itself many, many times over in the theory, and code tricks I've learned from it. BEWARE BEGINNERS....if you're unfamiliar with Excel or VBA development, this isn't the book for you...start with Excel 2003 Power Programming by John Walkenbach. If you're looking to take your spreadsheets to the next level, BUY THIS BOOK...IT RULES

Finally! The sequel to Walkenbach for developers is here!

If you cherished the Walkenbach's book for years and were longing for the advanced part to follow some day, you are there. So what if it is by different author. Once I got the book and browsed through for couple of hours I already was eager to share my excitement. But... decided to do some more reading to make sure that the quality holds throughout the book. And I am still impressed immensely. This is an outstanding book Buy the book even just for Chapter 20. Combining Excel and Visual Basic 6. The rumors about the death of VB6 are highly exaggerated. Even if you believe otherwise, the techniques described for using VB forms in VBA will give you a good grasp how to achieve the same thing with other languages. Basically, if you are a developer and were looking for a book to let you outgrow the limitations of VBA, this is THE BOOK. If you are a power user and would like to stay in confines of Excel and VBA, then most probably Walkenbach's book will be sufficient, although reading this book will give you an incentive to do more.

A remarkable book on creating complete Excel-based apps

Over the years, I've read a number of books on Excel programming. Each one seemed much like the previous one, generally talking about writing macros and creating data-entry forms. Professional Excel Development takes the concept quite a bit farther. Rather than giving you the same old tired lessons, this book goes into detail on exactly how to build professional level applications. It even explains how to make your Excel-based application look as though Excel had nothing to do with it. Suffice it to say, this ain't your daddy's Excel book. The authors, Stephen Bullen, Rob Bovey, and John Green, show a level of sophistication well beyond the norm. They'd rather teach you the proper way to program instead of teaching you how to use Excel. In fact, the first thing they do is distinguish five different levels of usage: Excel users, Excel power users, VBA developers, Excel developers, and professional Excel developers. The book is written for the highest level, so expect a lot of depth. The entire structure of the book builds around a time-entry application that is developed from a simple spreadsheet to a full-blown, production quality program. A CD-ROM is also included with all of the source code and multiple examples that are scattered throughout the book. Reading Professional Excel Development is not something to be taken lightly. The authors have done a fine job putting together a cohesive methodology for using Excel as an application development platform. I know of no other book that covers this platform in such depth. At times I found myself lost in the details, but I suspect a "professional Excel developer" (which I am not) would be delighted in the depth of description and copious examples provided. Professional Excel Development is an extremely well-written book that covers the use of Excel to a depth few authors have dared to tread. The text gives you the tools to build applications that are much more than automated spreadsheets. Almost any program your imagination can devise can be created using the techniques given, which is a testimony to the power of Excel. Bash Microsoft if you want, but they do sometimes come up with a winner, and Professional Excel Development allows you to take full advantage of its capabilities. I highly recommend this book.