Book Review
Department Editor: Warren Keuffel, wkeuffel@computer.org
Microsoft Office Programming in Visual Basic
Jennifer Hodgdon
Developing Microsoft Office Solutions: Answers for Office 2003, Office XP, Office 2000, and Office 97 Ken Blutman, Addison-Wesley, 2004, ISBN 0-201-73805-8, 586 pp., US$49.99
When I saw the title of this book, I was hoping it would be a good reference for someone like me: a professional software developer, who specializes in customizing Office applications for business clients. However, it turns out that the author intended the book more for someone who’s experienced in Visual Basic and XML, but a novice at creating Microsoft Office applications. Ken Blutman’s stated purpose is to tell such a person the key points to begin programming with Office, while avoiding the basics of VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) programming and XML.
To begin, the book could provide the novice user with a better overview of what you can do with Office automation, including a list of possible applications. Blutman definitely shows enthusiasm for Office applications (sometimes approaching the cheerleader level), but he doesn’t really explain the range of possibilities the Office applications’ “great tool” and “rich object model” open up.
The book also lacks basics that Office programming novices will need to get started, such as how to open the Visual Basic editor inside the Office applications and how to set up applications for users who aren’t programmers, so they can run from buttons and menus. Because this information is Office-specific, it wouldn’t be obvious to Visual Basic programmers who haven’t programmed in Office.
On the positive side, Parts 1 and 2 of the 3-part book (excluding the chapter on Microsoft Access) largely succeed in their goal of providing an introduction to the Visual Basic objects you use to program each Office application. Each chapter covers a particular Office application or technology and has at least one fairly extensive, fully realized example. Although some examples (such as building a crossword puzzle in Word) aren’t things you’d ever expect to need to do, they do illustrate basic programming techniques for Office applications. However, most of this content is readily available in Office Visual Basic help files. Also, the Access chapter isn’t at all useful. As the chapter’s introduction states, it “does not give instruction in either database fundamentals or basic Access development,” which are most of what an Access programmer (novice or experienced) needs; instead, the chapter just gives an overview of how to use a small number of Access VBA objects.
The best part of the book is Part 3, where the author presents five more extensive examples as case studies. These case studies contain not only detailed program listings, but also explanations and reasons for each part of each program. They’re also the book’s most relevant examples, illustrating how to solve plausible business problems. My only minor quarrel with the case studies is that, in a few cases, the solutions are specific to particular versions of Office. Although the author says work arounds exist for earlier versions, he doesn’t always explain what they are.
Overall, the book falls short of its goal for the Office programming novice and provides little for the seasoned Office programmer. Perhaps it’s best suited for someone who already knows how to write and run VBA programs for one or two of the Office applications and now wants to branch out to others.
Jennifer Hodgdon is the owner of Poplar ProductivityWare, a small software consulting firm. Contact her at www.poplarware.com
