Microsoft Excel VBA Programming for the Absolute Beginner, 3E (For the Absolute Beginner) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Duane Birnbaum, Michael Vine
Publisher: Course Technology PTR
Category: Book
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $18.37
You Save: $11.62 (39%)
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Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 55023
Media: Paperback
Edition: 3
Pages: 544
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 7.4 x 1.4
ISBN: 1598633945
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.54
EAN: 9781598633948
ASIN: 1598633945
Publication Date: June 8, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 4 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Few left in stock - order soon. Code: T20081117074326P
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Product Description
If you are new to programming with Microsoft Excel VBA and are looking for a solid introduction, this is the book for you. Developed by computer science professors, books in the "for the absolute beginner" series teach the principles of programming through simple game creation. Microsoft Excel VBA Programming for the Absolute Beginner, Third Edition provides you with the skills that you need for more practical Excel VBA programming applications and shows you how to put these skills to use in real-world scenarios. Best of all, by the time you finish the book, you will be able to apply the basic principles you've learned to the next programming language you tackle.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 Excellent book for beginners June 13, 2008
Pam Wren (Houston, TX United States)
As a self-taught user, with some help from other self-taught users in my company, I found this book excellent. Ideas that I had a fuzzy grasp of are made clear.
I suspect the teaching background of the authors contributes to the clear and concise descriptions of things and to the logical flow of the information.
I also bought their Access VBA book, but haven't tackled it yet. I suspect it to be just as helpful. They are probably too basic for an experienced user, but wonderful for beginners.
 A beginners bible May 31, 2008
L. Currier (Sunny Florida)
If you are just getting into VBA and have never tried any type of programming, then this is the book. It is straight forward with excellent examples. If you want to learn VBA but are afraid, this book will walk you through the VBA environment, which can be confusing, and leaves you with an end product. After using the examples you can venture off to use the skills in your own projects.
On the down side, this book is not an end-all-source. After being exposed to the VBA environment you will want to seek out more advanced books to enhance the base that this product provides.
 Not for beginners at all August 14, 2007
D. Joecker (Zurich, Switzerland)
Well, this review is negative, because the title and description very much suggests that this is an introductory book for VBA Excel. It is something along those lines, but the overall excellent and cool idea to program games in Excel is not suitable at all. The idea is nice, but for very beginners it becomes quickly frustrating as tasks and complexity of the content grow exponentially while the readers knowledge and understanding grows linear at best. Simply excercises that introduce the reader to the topic and mofr in depth treatment of the challenges of programming and VBA Excel while dealing more with everyday projects which we normally face would have been a better, but surely more boring approach.
So, I am not sure. For me as a real beginner to programming and VBA this book has been a frustating experience from the second quarter of the text on.
Not for beginners, but very good June 24, 2006
B. Gehring
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I'd have to agree that this book is not appropriately named. I found understanding the code more difficult than several books aimed at a moderately advanced audience, such as Walkenbach's Power Programming.
That said, I found the book offered unique angles and insights not dealt with in other books, and in showing how games can be programmed in Excel, really provided a broad view of the power and flexibility inherent in VBA and the Excel Object model. It was frankly an eye opener to see what Duane was able to do, and I think taking the time to work through the code has been tremendously rewarding, if not particularly easy.
In no way is this aimed at the "absolute beginner" May 21, 2006
Ty Arthur
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
This was my first foray into the "For the absolute beginner" series of books, and I understand now why it isn't nearly as popular as the "for dummies" or "demystified" series of instructional manuals. The main problem with this book is that it absolute is NOT intended for people with no previous experience in Excel or VBA, despite the disclaimer on the cover that states "No Experience Required!". A true beginner will be absolutely baffled by the concepts presented throughout, and will definitely walk away with a sour taste in their mouth.
The first chapter starts off solidly, displaying some of the basic things that can be done with Excel. Halfway through the chapter the author then inexplicably throws some code at the reader, without explaining ANY of the concepts behind how the code works, what it is, or how it's syntax is used. As I already had a solid grasp of programming concepts before diving into Visual Basic for Applications, I had a vague understanding of what was going on, but the target audience for this book will be left scratching their heads, wondering what the heck they just did. Each chapter onward becomes exponentially more complicated, throwing even more code at the user without any easily digestible explanations. As a guide to expanding your knowledge of VBA, this book actually does a pretty good job, if you already have a solid understanding of how VBA works. Each chapter ends with an exercise wherein the reader makes a game that utilizes all the concepts presented earlier. It's a rather odd way to teach VBA, as most people will be using Excel solely for business applications, but it does show case how Excel can create a wide range of solutions when coupled with VBA. The games themselves are actually rather fun, starting with a magic number grid and tic-tac-toe, and then eventually moving up to versions of Blackjack and even Battleship! It should also be noted that VBA is not the sole focus of this book, as there is a good deal of instruction regarding User Forms, drop down boxes, text controls, etc. and how they can interact with VBA.
Overall the book was decent and will certainly expand the user's already existing knowledge of Excel VBA. However, it really should have been titled "Excel VBA Programming for the Intermediate to Experienced User", as an absolute beginner won't get much use out of this particular tome.
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