Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Programming Inside Out | Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Programming Inside Out (Inside Out (Microsoft))

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Curtis Frye
Award-winning author of books and online courses

Wayne Freeze
Computer consultant, author, and programmer

Felicia Buckingham
Principal of FKB Consulting, and Office VBA expert

PUBLISHED BY
Microsoft Press
A Division of Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, Washington 98052-6399

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Frye, Curtis, 1968-
Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Programming Inside Out / Curtis Frye, Wayne S. Freeze, Felicia K. Buckingham.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-7356-1985-9
1. Microsoft Excel (Computer file) 2. Business-Computer programs. 3. Electronic
spreadsheets. I. Title.

HF5548.4.M523F792 2003
005.54-dc22 2003064850

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 QWT 8 7 6 5 4 3

Distributed in Canada by H.B. Fenn and Company Ltd.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Microsoft Press books are available through booksellers and distributors worldwide. For further information about international editions, contact your local Microsoft Corporation office or contact Microsoft Press International directly at fax (425) 936-7329. Visit our Web site at www.microsoft.com/mspress. Send comments to mspinput@microsoft.com.

ActiveX, BizTalk, DirectX, FrontPage, Hotmail, IntelliSense, MapPoint, Microsoft, Microsoft Press, MSDN, MSN, Outlook, PivotChart, PivotTable, PowerPoint, SharePoint, Tahoma, Visio, Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual C#, Visual Studio, Windows, the Windows logo, Windows NT, and Windows Server are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, place, or event is intended or should be inferred.

This book expresses the author's views and opinions. The information contained in this book is provided without any express, statutory, or implied warranties. Neither the authors, Microsoft Corporation, nor its resellers or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused either directly or indirectly by this book.

Acquisitions Editor: Juliana Aldous
Project Editor: Dick Brown
Technical Reviewer: Mark Dodge
Indexer: Richard Shrout

Body Part No. X10-09355

To our families

Acknowledgments

From Curtis Frye:

First and foremost I'd like to thank my co-authors, Wayne Freeze and Felicia Buckingham, for their knowledge and skill at presenting a series of complex topics so effectively. Westley Annis pitched in on several chapters as well, for which I am grateful.

I value my relationship with Microsoft Press for many reasons, but right up there on the list is the terrific working relationship I have with everyone there. I'm happy to say our relationship survived intact despite many changes in all of our lives that transpired during this project. Juliana Aldous Atkinson invited me to submit an outline and shepherded the proposal through the review process. Sandra Haynes was the first project editor, and Dick Brown took over when Sandra assumed different duties within Press. Wendy Zucker stepped in to help during the revision process when Dick went on vacation for a week. The phrase 'team effort' doesn't begin to describe the sort of support they provided.

I was also very fortunate to have Mark Dodge, co-author of Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Inside Out, as my technical editor. His knowledge of both the series and Excel gave him the perspective to make many terrific recommendations. Lisa Pawlewicz, ably assisted by Jaime Odell, performed what was probably one of the more involved copy edits that has passed over their desks in a while. Page proofs were handled by Sandi Resnick at Microsoft and the nSight team of Joe Armstrong, Steve Boudreault, Catherine Cooker, Beth Lew, Katie O'Connell, Dan Shaw, Asa Tomash, and Melissa von Tschudi-Sutton. Barbara Levy and Carl Diltz turned my Word files into the beautiful pages you see before you, William Teel got the graphics ready for production, Joel Panchot created the original art, and Richard Shrout created a thorough index. Tess McMillan heads the team that created the Companion CD.

Finally, I'd like to thank my agent, Neil Salkind of StudioB, for introducing me to Microsoft back in December of 2000. He was concerned about recommending a relatively new author to such an important publisher, but I'd say things have turned out pretty well.

From Wayne Freeze:

Curt: thanks for putting up with me while writing this book. I valued your patience, especially when I was running behind schedule as usual. Laura: thank you for making my first year at Studio B a very worthwhile experience. Steve: thank you for the opportunities and challenges you tossed my way this year and I have even higher expectations for the next. Christopher and Samantha: thanks for tolerating the long hours I've spent working on this book alongside my other projects. Jill: thank you for being you-I love you.

From Felicia Buckingham:

Thanks to everyone from Microsoft Press for their work on the project, and thanks to Curt for the opportunity to co-author my first book.

We'd Like to Hear from You

Our goal at Microsoft Press is to create books that help you find the information you need to get the most out of your software.

The Inside Out series was created with you in mind. As part of our ongoing effort to ensure that we're creating the books that meet your learning needs, we'd like to hear from you. Let us know what you think. Tell us what you like about this book and what we can do to make it better. When you write, please include the title and author of this book in your e-mail message, as well as your name and contact information. We look forward to hearing from you!

How to Reach Us

E-Mail: nsideout@microsoft.com
Mail: Inside Out Series Editor
Microsoft Press
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052

Note: Unfortunately, we can't provide support for any software problems you might experience. Please go to http://support.microsoft.com for help with any software issues.

About the CD

The Companion CD that ships with this book contains many tools and resources to help you get the most out of your Inside Out book.

What's on the CD

Your Inside Out CD includes the following:

Complete eBook. In this section, you'll find an electronic version of Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Programming Inside Out. The eBook is in PDF format.
Computer Dictionary, Fifth Edition eBook. Here you'll find the full electronic version of the Microsoft Computer Dictionary, Fifth Edition. Suitable for home and office, the dictionary contains more than 10,000 entries.
Insider Extras. This section includes the sample files used in the book.
Microsoft Resources. In this section, you'll find information about additional resources from Microsoft that will help you get the most out of Microsoft Office Excel 2003 and other business software from Microsoft.
Extending Excel. In this section, you'll find great information about third-party utilities and tools you use to further enhance your experience with Microsoft Office Excel 2003.

The Companion CD provides detailed information about the files on this CD, and links to Microsoft and third-party sites on the Internet. All the files on this CD are designed to be accessed through Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 5.01 or later).

Note

The links to third-party sites are not under the control of Microsoft Corporation, and Microsoft is therefore not responsible for their content, nor should their inclusion on this CD be construed as an endorsement of the product or the site. Software provided on this CD is in English language only and may be incompatible with non-English language operating systems and software.

Using the CD

To use this Companion CD, insert it into your CD-ROM drive. If AutoRun is not enabled on your computer, click on Index.htm in the WebSite folder in the root of the CD.

System Requirements

Following are the minimum system requirements necessary to run the CD:

Microsoft Windows XP or later or Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 3 or later.
266-MHz or higher Pentium-compatible CPU
64 megabytes (MB) RAM
8X CD-ROM drive or faster
Microsoft Windows-compatible sound card and speakers
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 or later

Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

Note

System requirements may be higher for the add-ins available via links on the CD. Individual add-in system requirements are specified at the sites listed. An Internet connection is necessary to access some of the hyperlinks. Connect time charges may apply.

Support Information

Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the book and the contents of this Companion CD. For feedback on the book content or this Companion CD, please contact us by using any of the addresses listed in the 'We'd Like to Hear From You' section.

Microsoft Press provides corrections for books through the World Wide Web at http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/support/. To connect directly to the Microsoft Press Knowledge Base and enter a query regarding a question or issue that you may have, go to http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/support/search.asp.

For support information regarding Windows XP, you can connect to Microsoft Technical Support on the Web at http://support.microsoft.com/.

Conventions and Features Used in this Book

This book uses special text and design conventions to make it easier for you to find the information you need.

Text Conventions

Convention	Meaning
Abbreviated menu commands	For your convenience, this book uses abbreviated menu commands. For example, 'Click Tools, Track Changes, Highlight Changes' means that you should click the Tools menu, point to Track Changes, and click the Highlight Changes command.
Boldface type	Boldface type is used to indicate text that you enter or type.
Initial Capital Letters	The first letters of the names of menus, dialog boxes, dialog box elements, and commands are capitalized. Example: the Save As dialog box.
Italicized type	Italicized type is used to indicate new terms.
Plus sign (+) in text	Keyboard shortcuts are indicated by a plus sign (+) separating two key names. For example, Ctrl+Alt+Delete means that you press the Ctrl, Alt, and Delete keys at the same time.

Design Conventions

New Feature This icon identifies a new or significantly updated feature in this version of the software.

Inside Out
This statement illustrates an example of an
'Inside Out' problem statement

These are the book's signature tips. In these tips, you'll get the straight scoop on what's going on with the software-inside information about why a feature works the way it does. You'll also find handy workarounds to deal with software problems.

Tip

Tips provide helpful hints, timesaving tricks, or alternative procedures related to the task being discussed.

Troubleshooting

This statement illustrates an example of a 'Troubleshooting' problem statement Look for these sidebars to find solutions to common problems you might encounter. Troubleshooting sidebars appear next to related information in the chapters. You can also use the Troubleshooting Topics index at the back of the book to look up problems by topic.

Cross-Reference

Cross-references point you to other locations in the book that offer additional information about the topic being discussed.

CD-ROM This icon indicates information or text found on the companion CD.

Caution

Cautions identify potential problems that you should look out for when you're completing a task or problems that you must address before you can complete a task.

Note

Notes offer additional information related to the task being discussed.

Sidebars

The sidebars sprinkled throughout these chapters provide ancillary information on the topic being discussed. Go to sidebars to learn more about the technology or a feature.

About the Authors

Curtis Frye is the author of Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Step by Step, Microsoft Excel Version 2002 Plain & Simple, Faster Smarter Home Networking (all from Microsoft Press), several books on Microsoft Access, and numerous online training courses.

Wayne S. Freeze, a computer consultant and author with more than a dozen books and 50+ articles to his credit, specializes in programming for Microsoft Office, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft DirectX.

Felicia K. Buckingham, an expert on Excel and VBA programming, is the principal of FKB Consulting, based in Manitoba, Canada.

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