On the surface, it doesn't appear as if much in Excel 2003 has changed. There are a handful of new objects and the user interface is largely the same. But beyond a superficial glance, you'll see that there are fundamental shifts implied by the new features: Lists, XML, web services, .NET, and InfoPath build a framework for entirely new ways to exchange data with Excel. In fact, that's much of what Excel 2003 is all about—solving problems that deal with teamwork— collecting and sharing data, programming across applications, and maintaining security. The latest in our Developer's Notebook series, this guide introduces intermediate to advanced Excel VBA programmers to the newest programming features of Excel 2003,—focusing just on what's new—so you can get up to speed quickly. Light on theory and long on practical application, the book takes you directly to the topics you'll want to master through a series of hands-on projects. With dozens of practical labs, you'll be able to decide for yourself which new aspects of Excel will be useful or not in your own work. And best of all, you won't have to buy an expensive revision of a legacy Excel programming tutorial to learn about the new features—if they're covered there at all.
Excel 2003 Programming: A Developer's Notebook
shows you how to work with lists and XML data, secure Excel applications, use Visual Studio Tools for Office, consume Web Services, and collect data with Infopath. Each chapter is organized into a collection of labs, each of which addresses a specific programming problem. You can follow along to complete the lab on your own, or jump ahead and use the samples the author has built for you. The new Developer's Notebooks series from O'Reilly covers important new tools for software developers. Emphasizing example over explanation and practice over theory, they focus on learning by doing—you'll get the goods straight from the masters, in an informal and code-intensive style that suits developers. If you've been curious about Excel 2003, but haven't known where to start, this no-fluff, lab-style guide is the solution.