Microsoft's Excel is not only a powerful spreadsheet and graphics tool—it contains a programming language called Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), which allows you to automate simple tasks and enables you to create full-featured applications that make Excel users even more productive. In the Definitive Guide to Excel VBA, Second Edition, veteran author Michael Kofler provides exhaustive coverage of VBA for Excel, demonstrating how it can be used to implement real-world business solutions. Designed to be useful to programmers who have never used VBA before, it also covers advanced topics needed for users already familiar with VBA.

First, Kofler introduces VBA and the Excel object model, focusing on the unique characteristics of programming and debugging code associated with spreadsheets. The next few chapters cover menus, toolbars, forms, and templates—the tools for creating customized user interfaces and full-featured applications. He then moves on to a broad range of advanced topics, including automating graphs and diagrams, accessing external databases from Excel, and analyzing data using grouping and pivot-tables. He even covers ActiveX automation and the access of Web Services using the Web Service Toolkit.

Throughout the book, Kofler never loses sight of the real-world problems faced by Excel programmers. The book also explores ways to avoid undocumented problems that may arise when programming Excel VBA—practical knowledge that was gained through years of hard experience.