Peter G. Aitken
1 Learn Excel VBA in a weekend? You bet!
I recently picked this book up after I tasked myself with developing a quoting system for my company. I've had some exposure to VBA before, but only small segments such as a message or input box, simple forms, etc.
Immediately after sitting down with this book I was impressed. Mr. Aitken writes in a clear, concise, and very logical manner that I found easy to follow. Topics are presented well and for the most part given adequate treatment. Some may say the book is too basic, but it's not meant to be an advanced programming course.
In a little over three days, I was able to completely program a sales quoting system using multiple screens, worksheet linking, and simple database tables. Now, instead of hand-writing and calculating associated costs (which often leads to errors) the user is systematically prompted for key inputs and all calculations are done in the background. I've reduced administrative time required to complete a quote by over 25%.
Not bad for a weekend project!
2 Poor examples, it tells you what to do and does not show you
This book is extreemly frustrating as it tells you what excel can do, gives brief formulas but then does not show you how to use them in detail so it can be difficult in trying to acheive the result with the given formulas.
3 Not a weekend crash course
I bought this book based on the reviews and summary because it sounds like a book that a beginner could really learn from. But not so. I've made it to chapter four but I'm finding I can go on no longer. This book is basically straight text. There are no step by step lessons to demonstrate what the lesson is talking about. The book does provide some sample code, but it is presented as an example; you do not build it yourself. This book tells you what to do, but you don't get your hands dirty by actually writing codes yourself and then seeing what the code does.
I will say this though. The text itself is well written and is readable enough, given the dry nature of the subject. But I do feel this is more of a reference book for beginners. I'm going to buy the Microsoft step-by-step book, then come back to this book.
I'm giving it two stars simply because I do not believe this book is what it claims to be, a weekend crash course.
4 Great for starters
I was an absolute novice to vba when i got the book. It's good with the basics, but after a while you will definitely need a book to complement this one.
5 Must Read for Excel Programming
I've bought several books on Exel programming and this is without question the best book of them all. You can't wrong by purchasing this book.
6 Excellent excel programing book
Really is the one of the best books for beginners. It is very comprensive book for introduce you in the world of excel programming.
7 Peter Aitken is on the mark again!
Peter Aitken has written many Microsoft books that I have read over the years so I was more interested in this book because Peter wrote it and it does cover the new Excel 2003 release as well as previous versions of Excel to make it appropriate for someone (like me) who is still working on Excel 2000! I highly recommend this book to anyone who needs a quick tutorial guide to using the basics and not-so-basics of Excel. Peter writes in an easy to understand style that makes it enjoyable.
