Just a short post for whoever’s interested. Addison-Wesley have agreed for us to make the following sample chapters from Professional Excel Development available for reading at www.oaltd.co.uk/ProExcelDev:
Chapter 1 – Introduction
Chapter 9 – Understanding and Using Windows API Calls
Chapter 15 – Advanced Charting Techniques
Regards
Stephen Bullen
Stephen – that’s just cruel – it’s like Dan Brown publishing a couple of chapters of his new book a month before it’s published!!
Looks like the book is going to live up to expectations!
Stephen,
I take this opportunity to ask if the book will cover any aspects of the OWC. If not it would be interesting to learn Your opinion about it.
Personally I have find the set to be very useful & powerful for VBA/VB/VB.NET-projects.
Kind regards,
Dennis
Hi Stephen.
I’m really enjoying those chapters.
The APIs section contains what I most refer to.
I never end up keeping the code and search google every time I need it…
And charting equations… nice!
Page 532, 539 refers to macrofun with an URL to mskb 128175 but it errors though I found it at 128185. typo?
Rob
I’ve got my copy on hold at Powell’s here in Portland. I figure I’ll never have to buy another book…
Got a copy sitting on hold at Amazon too …
Looking forward to getting my hands on it.
Dennis – No, we don’t cover the Office Web Components in the book. That’s mainly because we haven’t seen much interest in it, neither in the customer base, nor within Microsoft. In my opinion, it seems to be a cul-de-sac technology, dropped by the wayside as Microsoft move on to other ideas. I don’t know if they’re still being developed, but I’ll ask around. Also, I’m not sure whether the licensing agreement allows us to distribute the components, so using them in a VB or VB.Net solution would require the end users to have them installed. And, of course, there’s also the problem that none of the authors know much about them, so we can’t talk authoritatively about how to use them best.
Rob – Yes, probably a typo (D’Oh!). I guess we’ll never be able to get rid of every last one. I’ll make sure it’s added to the Errata page on AW’s web site.
Regards
Stephen Bullen
Stephen,
Thanks for Your reply. AFAIK, the license-limitations refers to OWC 9.0 and not to later.
In fact there exist an updated version of OWC 11.0 for download at MSFT.
Personally I have only good experience with them so I’m surprised that they have not been pushed by MSFT.
Kind regards,
Dennis
Hi Dennis,
Thanks for the info re the licence limitations. I agree that they’re very useful (particularly the ability to have lots and lots of columns). I guess they’re not pushed by MSFT because they’re not (themselves) .NET – though I think the PIAs are available.
Regards
Stephen
Stephen,
The mix of available versions of Excel does not make the life easier, especially when we talk about PIA’s…
Will You book cover some detailed aspect of creating Your own set of PIA’s for 2000 or even for 97?
Kind regards,
Dennis
Hi Dennis,
No. We have a chapter about using VB.NET and VSTO, but it goes to the level of explaining what can be done and how to do it, covers the security considerations and then discusses some of the ‘big issues’ with the current implimenation (i.e. VSTO 2003). That, I’m afraid, filled the chapter. The aim of the chapter is to allow the existing VBA developer to start looking at VB.NET, highlighting both the good bits and the caveats. The topic is (unfortunately) far too big to get to the level of creating custom IAs for previous versions within one chapter. If you’re already writing VSTO solutions, it’s unlikely that the chapter will teach you much.
Sorry,
Stephen Bullen
Stephen,
No need to be sorry. I believe, for the “average” power VBA-developer, It will be sufficient with an “introduction” chapter to VSTO. It will propably take a while before the larger group of VBA-developers discover it and perhaps port themselves to VSTO. Especially if we consider the fact that it’s only useful for 2003 and later and it’s an “add-on” to VS.NET (sorry to simplify it but that’s the way I see it at present).
BTW, nice to see that You cover API & WMI in a different way compared with Your previous book.
Kind regards,
Dennis
VST…. .Net, i look forward to reading these chapters, i wont beable to try any of the stuff but there you go!
Hi Stephen,
I went to your site but Im able to see only chapter 1. Is 9 and 15 no longer available?
Regards,
Hari
India
Hi Hari,
No, 9 and 15 are still there. They’re pdf files, for which you’ll need the viewer (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html)
Regards
Stephen Bullen
Stephen, Amazon UK says that your book will ship in 4-6 weeks. Do you know if any high street bookstores are stocking it so I can get it sooner?
Hi Charlie
The books were shipped from AW’s warehouse last Thursday. They have arrived at the online US stores (Amazon.com is showing next-day availability), will arrive in the US physical stores in a week or so, but may take up to a month to arrive in the UK – both for the physical stores and Amazon.co.uk.
However, you could try the ‘buy it used’ links at Amazon.co.uk, who are US companies willing to ship internationally – but I don’t know if you’ll get it any sooner that way.
Of course, if you’re anywhere near Woodford Green, I’ve just received 14 copies that I need to find a home for. I’m sure we could agree a slight discount off the list price.
Regards
Stephen Bullen