That makes my life easier. The main thing to note in VBA is that = means
both assignment and comparison, there is no ==.

Set a reference to the Excel object library in Tools > References.

Create an instance of the Excel application object

    Dim eApp As New Excel.Application

Create a workbook object

    Dim wBook As Excel.Workbook

Use Excel.Application.Workbooks.Open to open your Excel sheet, and use
wBook to reference this sheet

    Set wBook = eApp.Workbooks.Open(arguments)

Then get the worksheet from this workbook

    Dim wSheet as Excel.WorkSheet
    Set wSheet = wBook.Sheets(index)

Use the .Cells(x,y) property of wSheet to get your cells.

VBA has no regex facilities, so you'll have to use InStr to find the
location of the x, then Left$ and Right$ to get the two numbers out.

    Dim aShape As Publisher.Shape
    Set aShape = ThisDocument.ActiveView.ActivePage.Shapes.Add(args)

will create you a shape. Properties are assigned as (for example)

    aShape.Fill.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(0, 0, 255)

(to set the shape's fill to blue).

VBA's version of the switch statement is the Select Case, which goes:

Select Case i
    Case 1
        'do stuff
    Case 2
        'do other stuff
    Case Else
        'do non-handled case
End Select

(There is no "break".)

Similarly, the if statement:

If i Then
    'do something
ElseIf j Then
    'do something else
Else
    'another thing
End If

The for statement:

For i = 1 to 5
    MsgBox i
Next

(Note that function arguments must be enclosed in brackets if the return
value is being assigned to something, and must not be enclosed in
brackets otherwise; MsgBox in this case is the latter, hence no brackets.)

For collections, you can use For Each

Dim a As Publisher.Page
For Each a In ThisDocument.Pages
    a.Shapes.AddPicture(...)
Next

Then do loops:

Do
    'stuff
Loop While a < 4

Do While a < 4
    'stuff
Loop

(See http://www.ozgrid.com/VBA/do-until-loop.htm)

If you're doing lots of stuff on a variable, use With

Dim a As Publisher.Pafe
Set a = ThisDocument.Pages(1)
With a
    .Shapes.AddPicture(...)
End With

Loops can be broken out of prematurely with Exit [For|Do]; this also
applies for Subs with Exit Sub,

Comments are limited to single lines; everything after a ' is considered
a comment.

Any more questions, ask.