If you are using msnews.microsoft.com
click on msnews.microsoft.com line>newsgroups>word

Syslock, you might try microsoft.public.word.vba.beginners or
microsoft.public.word.vba.general.

You're not connecting to the MS Newsservers directly.

Saved from a previous post:

If you have Outlook Express installed, try clicking on these links (or copy and
paste into MSIE).

news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.excel.setup
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.excel.misc
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.excel.worksheet.functions
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.excel.newusers
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.excel.programming

(and a few more for MSWord)
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.docmanagement
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.word97vba
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.newusers
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.pagelayout
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.vba.addins
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.vba.beginners
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.vba.customization
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.vba.general
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.vba.userforms
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.word6-7macros

(You can always connect to more later)

Here are some links that explain it better:

Chip Pearson has some notes written by Leonard Meads at:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/DirectConnect.htm

David McRitchie's notes at:
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/xlnews.htm
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/oe6.htm
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/oe6nws01.htm

Tushar Mehta's notes at:
http://www.tushar-mehta.com/misc_tutorials/oe_ng/index.htm

And if you're looking for old posts:

Or you can use google (maybe a few hours behind) to search for stuff you've
posted (and find the replies, too)

http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search
http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=group:*Excel*&num=100

Ron de Bruin has an excel addin that you may like:
http://www.rondebruin.nl/Google.htm