Having a couple of semesters of VB6 to play around with, I bought
"VBA for Dummies" by Steve Cummings.  In it, I read a lot about the
things I already knew --  the editing environment, the basic controls,
fundamental coding logic.  But in the end I knew no more about how I
could use my VB skills (such as they are) inside Word or Excel.

I got a pretty good handle about how to record macros (no programming
required),  but I just didn't see anything "A" in Mr. Cummings'
"VBA".

Is there some astounding bit of newbie ignorance I'm suffering from?
After spending 25 dollars, it feels like he's laughing at a joke I
don't get.

The "A" is the Word object model, which is vast.

You'll find lots of useful stuff for non-dummies at:
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/

Regards

Dave

| Having a couple of semesters of VB6 to play around with, I bought
| "VBA for Dummies" by Steve Cummings.  In it, I read a lot about the
| things I already knew --  the editing environment, the basic controls,
| fundamental coding logic.  But in the end I knew no more about how I
| could use my VB skills (such as they are) inside Word or Excel.
|
| I got a pretty good handle about how to record macros (no programming
| required),  but I just didn't see anything "A" in Mr. Cummings'
| "VBA".
|
| Is there some astounding bit of newbie ignorance I'm suffering from?
| After spending 25 dollars, it feels like he's laughing at a joke I
| don't get.

Take a look at the list of Word VBA books at my URL below.

--
Please post your response to the newsgroup. Do not email me a copy of the
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http://www.standards.com/; Programming and support for  Word macros,
including converting from WordBasic to VBA; Technical reviewing; Standards;
Product functional/design/specifications
------------------------------------------------

Hmm, there's a couple different ways we can look at this.

If you were hoping for Mr. Cummings to have actually created a useful
"A"pplication in his book, I wouldn't be surprised if that never
really happened. I haven't read the book but going from anecdotal
evidence, code authors who are also writing a book rarely come up with
a real application in their story.

If you were wondering what the "A" really means, that's a little
simpler and should explain why converting your VB skill set to VBA is
a minor hurdle. VBA is VB for "A"pplications, an extensible, object
oriented system that can be added to practically any Win32 application
set...like Visio. The code that is produced in VBA is cannot be run
standalone and requires that the hosting application expose an object
model through which the host app can be programmatically manipulated.
In addition, VBA carries almost the same set of capabilities as
regular VB where access to the system and operating logic are
concerned.

The biggest part of VBA programming has little to do with VB or VBA
themselves. Much more time is devoted to, and required, in learning to
use the object model of the VBA host applications. That realization
will also explain why there are so many VBA oriented groups here at
MSNEWS but with a decided focus on each host application. The
alternative would be a single VBA group which would probably serve us
all much more poorly.<g>

...Or did I completely miss your point?

Greg Chapman
MS-MVP

http://www.mousetrax.com
MouseTrax Computing Solutions

Since I primarily develop MS Office solutions for local compaines and myself
with VBA maybe I can help you understand a little of what is going on here.
The Strong advantage of VBA over VB in most office solutions is that the
bulk of the components are in place and VBA manipulates them to develop
solutions.  In VB you have to develop the environment as well as the
solution.  I spent about 18 months developing Ala Power's full financial
model that determines all aspects of the company's rate making process.
While that seems long, they had Southern Services present it to outside
VB/C++ developers who were estimating teams of a dozen or so and still
taking a year or more to do it and several million $$.  I developed it in
Excel and VBA because the file has over 100K complex formulas (In Excel-talk
that is formulas over 100 characters long) and complex conditional logic
trees which Excel handles nicely.  VBA made it possible and affordable!

Hope this helps a little.

George Mizzell