What You Need to Have

To make the best use of this book, you need a copy of Excel 2007. Although most of the material also applies to Excel 2000 and later versions, I assume that you are using Excel 2007. Although Excel 2007 is radically different from its predecessors, the VBA environment has not changed at all. If you plan to develop applications that will be used in earlier versions of Excel, I strongly suggest that you don't use Excel 2007 for your development work.

Most of the material in this book also applies to Excel for Macintosh. However, I did no compatibility testing with the Mac version, so you're on your own.

Any computer system that can run Windows will suffice, but you'll be much better off with a fast machine with plenty of memory. Excel is a large program, and using it on a slower system or a system with minimal memory can be extremely frustrating.

I recommend using a high-resolution video driver (1024 — 768 is adequate, and 1600 — 1200 is even better). For optimal results, try a dual-monitor system and place Excel on one screen and the Visual Basic Editor on the other. You'll soon become spoiled.

To use the examples on the companion CD, you also need a CD-ROM drive.