On the surface, it doesn't appear as if much in Excel 2003 has changed. There are a handful of new objects and the user interface is largely the same. But beyond a superficial glance, you'll see that there are fundamental shifts implied by the new features: Lists, XML, web services, .NET, and InfoPath build a framework for entirely new ways to exchange data with Excel. In fact, that's much of what Excel 2003 is all about--solving problems that deal with teamwork-- collecting and sharing data, programming across applications, and maintaining security. The latest in our Developer's Notebook series, this guide introduces intermediate to advanced Excel VBA programmers to the newest programming features of Excel 2003,--focusing just on what's new--so you can get up to speed quickly. Light on theory and long on practical application, the book takes you directly to the topics you'll want to master through a series of hands-on projects. With dozens of practical labs, you'll be able to decide for yourself which new aspects of Excel will be useful or not in your own work. And best of all, you won't have to buy an expensive revision of a legacy Excel programming tutorial to learn about the new features--if they're covered there at all. Excel 2003 Programming: A Developer's Notebook shows you how to work with lists and XML data, secure Excel applications, use Visual Studio Tools for Office, consume Web Services, and collect data with Infopath. Each chapter is organized into a collection of labs, each of which addresses a specific programming problem. You can follow along to complete the lab on your own, or jump ahead and use the samples the author has built for you. The new Developer's Notebooks series from O'Reilly covers important new tools for software developers. Emphasizing example over explanation and practice over theory, they focus on learning by doing--you'll get the goods straight from the masters, in an informal and code-intensive style that suits developers. If you've been curious about Excel 2003, but haven't known where to start, this no-fluff, lab-style guide is the solution.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 7 Ratings

Lazy Writing will Leave you Confused - 2006-02-21
Reviewer Rating:
Although this book touches on subjects that are interesting, he's very lazy in how he approaches the topics. What I mean is that he ends his sections leaving you wanting more. Here's an example where he's supposed to be explaining how to hit Google's Web service with XML. He ends the section with this paragragh:

"Next the wsm_doGoogleSearch method submits the search to Google. That method takes a lot of arguments and returns a structure, which is defined in another proxy class so you need to use SET to perform assignment. Similarly, you need to use SET to get elements from the result."

THAT'S IT!! He ends the section just like that; no follow up or further explanation! This is just one example of how things in this book are only half explained. Meanwhile, the reader is left confused.

Developers best assistant - 2004-10-27
Reviewer Rating:
Readable, knowledgeable comprehensive This is not the first book a beginning Excel programmer should buy, but once he or she has become comfortable with the basics of VB or VBA, then this is an essential book for transitioning to sophisticated Web and .NET applications. It concisely shows you how to do a lot of things that other books blur over.

Nearly Worthless - 2006-02-14
Reviewer Rating:
Worhtless unless you are:
1.) IT developer at large company
who is
2.) In charge of all IT purchasing
and
3.) allowed to set and enforce all IT standards for
Office and all Web standards

The book focus' very narrowly to solve problems no one has,
a very typical example is how to download an Amazon.com object
so that you may use Excel to search Amazon. The author then mentions that Amazon doesn't parse the output as he would like,
so you have some clean up work to do.
If you have a screaming need to use Excel to search Amazon for John Grisham books, this tome is for you.
Otherwise forget it.

Excel As A User Of XML Data - For Programmers Only - 2005-01-05
Reviewer Rating:
The writer presents Excel as an application object floating on a sea of XML data and explores Excel's integration with Sharepoint, Web Services, IRM (Information Rights Management), and Infopath (Microsoft's forms-based application development system).

This is not a book for the average Excel user.

This is not a book for those wanting to learn how to do VBA macros for Excel.

This is not a reference book for Excel, VBA, or anything else.

What it is, is a good book. The author, Jeff Webb, is an experienced writer with several books on programming topics for the Microsoft platform. Serious programmers will expand their view of Excel as they read and as they do the many examples that are complete with code and screen shots. The 294-page book makes a great week-end reader.

Novice - 2004-12-04
Reviewer Rating:
While I am a novice at programming (having a very limited acronym vocabulary) this book helped me figure what Excel is really good for. But, to tell you that would spoil the ending.It is absolutely riveting.

Browse Similar Topics

Top Level Categories:
Desktop Applications
Operating Systems

Sub-Categories:
Desktop Applications > Excel
Operating Systems > Windows
Windows > Applications