5.6. Chapter Summary and Next Steps

There were a lot of items covered in this chapter that are critical to effectively using VBA automation with Access and Excel. Using Access to automate Excel is my preferred approach to integrating the two applications because you have much more control over the data and complete access to all of the built-in Excel functions. The only things you don't have access to from VBA within Access are any macros or user-defined Excel functions. When you open an Excel workbook from VBA, macros are not enabled. This feature is designed to protect you from macro viruses.

If you are confused about anything covered in this chapter, review it or go back to prior chapters. You must understand this chapter completely to be able to complete the project in Chapter 12. Also, the same concepts used to automate Excel from VBA are used to automate Word, PowerPoint, MapPoint, or any other VBA-enabled application.

You should understand:

• the difference between early and late binding

• how the objects needed to create a usable Excel worksheet can be manipulated from Access

• how to manipulate queries from within VBA

If you have those items down and have a general understanding of the other topics, the rest of the book will reinforce what you know. You will be exposed to other topics and will continue to build on your knowledge.

In the next chapter, you will learn how to use the data in Access to create Excel PivotTables, PivotCharts, and regular charts and graphs. In addition, you will learn how to manipulate existing charts and graphs by changing the data ranges, adding new ranges, or changing the underlying data.