| | |  | Business Basics | Home » » Microsoft® Office Excel® 2007 Visual Basic® for Applications Step by Step (BPG-step by Step) | | | | | | | Product Promotions: | | | | | Description: | | Quickly teach yourself how to automate tasks and create custom spreadsheet solutions with Excel 2007 Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). With Step By Step, you set the pace—building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them!
- Create macros to automate repetitive tasks
- Automatically format charts, shapes, and text
- Manipulate tables and other objects—even build PivotTable reports
- Write your own functions and procedures
- Use loops and conditions to add decision logic to macros
- Build custom command buttons, dialog boxes, and user forms
Your all-in-one learning experience includes: - Files for building skills and practicing the book’s lessons
- Fully searchable eBook
- Windows Vista® Product Guide eReference—plus other resources on CD
A Note Regarding the CD or DVD The print version of this book ships with a CD or DVD. For those customers purchasing one of the digital formats in which this book is available, we are pleased to offer the CD/DVD content as a free download via OReilly Medias Digital Distribution services. To download this content, please visit OReillys web site, search for the title of this book to find its catalog page, and click on the link below the cover image (Examples, Companion Content, or Practice Files). Note that while we provide as much of the media content as we are able via free download, we are sometimes limited by licensing restrictions. Please direct any questions or concerns to booktech@oreilly.com.
| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Reed Jacobson | | Paperback:
| 384 pages | | Publisher:
| Microsoft Press | | Publication Date:
| May 16, 2007 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 073562402X | | Product Length:
| 7.48 inches | | Product Width:
| 8.98 inches | | Product Height:
| 0.99 inches | | Product Weight:
| 1.43 pounds | | Package Length:
| 8.82 inches | | Package Width:
| 7.32 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.42 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.72 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 8 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 8 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 26 found the following review helpful:
 This book is a mess!Nov 07, 2008
By A. M. Rosa
"A. M. Rosa"
I don't quite understand how this book got out of the proof-reading and technical review phase and made it to press. There are so many errors in the code and approaches that don't work, that a true beginner to VBA for Excel could easily get lost.
I would want to say that this book is an okay starting point for learning VBA, but I would be afraid that a beginner would get hopelessly confused. I think a better book for learning Excel VBA is VBA and Macros for Microsoft Office Excel 2007 (Business Solutions) by Bill Jelen and Tracy Syrstad.
While I am sure Mr. Jacobson is probably a decent developer and a nice person, he is a sloppy author. He relies too heavily on recording macros and then reworking them to try and teach VBA coding than actually taking the time to explain coding theory and getting you to think how to tackle the problems on your own. Even the fact that he has you type the code first before he explains why is annoying. I would rather the explanation first, giving me a chance to see if I could work the code out on my own, then have him tell me what the most efficient method is. I realize that this is probably also due to the Microsoft Press Step-by-Step formula for writing these books, but that is another reason why I do not like the series as a whole.
There are many typo's in the text with regard to code that wouldn't make the Macro's run if you didn't catch the error and then there are several things that don't work.
Examples:
In Chapter 5, Jacobson steps you through using the Immediate window to open a file, then moving the sheet to an open workbook, then moving it to its own new workbook (He does point out that Excel will not allow you to move the only sheet of a workbook to a new workbook without the interim step). In "simplifying" the recorded macro, he uses the ThisWorkbook object. This approach works fine if you have the code in the module of the holding spreadsheet you initially want to move the newly opened sheet to, as ThisWorkbook will always refer back to the workbook which the VBA module is in, but executing this in the Immediate window will not work because the command you used to open the file in the previous step caused that workbook to become the Active workbook, and thus the ThisWorkbook object is referring to the wrong workbook and the command doesn't work.
Also in Chapter 5: Working with Excel Tables, Jacobson takes you through how to simplify the recorded macro in order to manipulate the table totals and filters. The way he has coded the macro, the Subtotals do not refresh, so when you filter, the subtotals in the totals row are wrong. You need to F2 each of the cells in order for them to update as a simple F9 will not refresh them. While this may be a bug with Excel 2007 Tables and manipulating them with a VBA macro, this should have been tested and at least mentioned.
On the whole it is disappointing that the books published under the Microsoft name lack any sort of quality control standards and are at best basic. You would think that they would have the best insight into the product and would be the most valuable of learning tools for using the products creatively. But they aren't and as a result, I cannot recommend this book.
 Good book, easy to useAug 01, 2011
By Doina Brownell
"dbrown"
Knowing Excel is a good skill to have for everyone. I, certainly recommend this book to everyone who wants to improve themselves for accessing the job market.
Be aware of Errors !Jun 13, 2011
By PS Dex
This book has many errors in it, some are simple typos, but there are also syntax misprints, some of which are quite easily spotted even by beginners to Excel VBA, however if the errors are missed, it results in some of the VB not working.
This can lead to lots of wasted time especially as the examples & exercises in the chapters are designed to be `Step By Step'... if you do not get the first tasks in a chapter correct this means that the next tasks in that chapter will not work.
The textbook is accompanied by a CD with the practice files, although some of these also do not work. Example as follows:
Chapter 5 `Explore Data Objects' Page 165 - Point 4
This step returns the following error message: "Runtime error '1004': Unable to set the Visible property of
the PivotItem class", for the less-than and greater-than dates.
This error happens even when using the Recorded Macros & Finished Macros from the CD.
If you do have this book then it would be worthwhile to check the Errata page of the publisher
For this type of publication, the attention to detail should be a lot better.
Very Disappointing.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Helpful textbook.May 18, 2011
By R. S. Hersberger
This is a well written textbook for teaching the concepts the author wants to present.
The concepts and examples were very helpful.
This is not a reference book and will not teach you the detailed specifications of Visual Basic language.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Teach yourself VBAOct 24, 2010
By Bart
Went looking for a publication providing practical and easy to follow instruction on the use of VBA. Having already attempted to use an 'O'Reilly' VB & VBA text, only to find that its excellence was clouded by its complexity - it assumed you already knew the basics and did not offer screen based examples of what it was portraying, I was after something friendlier.
This publication fits the bill for the informed but not expert user of Microsoft Office 2007/2010 who want's to take the next step and automate business processes or routines.
It is well written and easy to follow and the author clearly knows his stuff. (although it's possibly not edited as well as it should have been - an early 'typo' gave the wrong instruction as to which short cut key to use to run a macro being developed in the tuition exercise - wasn't hard to realise but here's hoping it is the only one!).
See all 8 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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