Preface

Excel offers right out of the box an enormous variety of functions. So why does one need VBA macros? With VBA you can accomplish wonders:

• You can program your own worksheet functions that are easier to use than complicated formulas.

• You can configure Excel to suit your requirements and in this way achieve greater simplicity and efficiency.

• You can structure and simplify complex processes such as filling out forms by means of "smart" forms (templates).

• You can automate processes that are used frequently. This is particularly useful in dealing repeatedly with large data sets that must be processed , analyzed , and graphically displayed.

• You can create freestanding Excel programs that display their own menus , dialogs, and toolbars . This makes it possible to simplify an Excel application to the point where those unfamiliar with Excel can run the program correctly.

What's New in Excel 2000 and 2002?

With Excel 97, the VBA programming model and the most important object libraries became fairly stable. Excel 2000 and 2002 introduced a host of new objects, but in practice these are seldom used (if for no other reason than to make VBA applications backward compatible with the widely distributed Excel 97). The most important innovations are the Scripting and ADO libraries, both of which have been available since Excel 2000, simplifying access to files, directories, and external databases.