Which VBA book should I get?

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Tom_OM - 08 May 2006 03:43 GMT

I have about four years experience in VB 6 programming, plus I've
branched out and have programmed a bit in REALbasic.

I want to get up and running in VBA because I'd like to highly
customize Word. I'd like to add features to Word that I miss from two
other word processors, WordStar and Lotus Word Pro. The WordStar
features that I missed have already been done for me in VBA by Mike
Petrie with his ingenious WordStar emulator:
http://www.wordstar.org/wsemu/word/pages/index.htm

Now I'm working on the Word Pro features that I miss when I do work in
Word. I've already figured out and added of those features. Some
remain to be done, and it's looking like I'll need to do some studying
of VBA before I can figure out how to add the remaining features I
want.

I'm considering a number of books and wonder which one would be best
for me. I learned VB 6 by studying Diane Zak's book on VB 6, and am
therefore considering getting her VBA book. However, when I studied
her VB 6 book, I was a complete newbie who had never programmed a
single line of code. That situation has changed obviously.

Here are the VBA books I'm considering. If you have used any of them,
I'd really appreciate your opinion, or if you know of another book
that you can recommend, I'd love to hear about it.

The books:
Writing Word Macros (Paperback)
by Steven Roman
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1565927257/ref=pd_kar_gw_1/103-1101574-6534244?
%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155

Office VBA Macros You Can Use Today : Over 100 Amazing Ways to
Automate Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access (Paperback)
by Anne Troy, Juan Pablo Gonzalez, Cindy Meister, Suat Ozgur, Bill
Dilworth, T J Brandt
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1932802061/ref=wl_it_dp/103-1101574-6534244?%5F
encoding=UTF8&colid=1PJ0CEXF2N2V6&coliid=I1ZJEV65XWR715&v=glance&n=283155

VB and VBA in a Nutshell: The Languages (Paperback)
by Paul Lomax
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1565923588/ref=wl_it_dp/103-1101574-6534244?%5F
encoding=UTF8&colid=1PJ0CEXF2N2V6&coliid=IKECX9ESRK9VB&v=glance&n=283155

VBA Developer's Handbook, 2nd Edition (Paperback)
by Ken Getz, Mike Gilbert "
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0782129781/ref=wl_it_dp/103-1101574-6534244?%5F
encoding=UTF8&colid=1PJ0CEXF2N2V6&coliid=IZFEH5N5CVO23&v=glance&n=283155

Visual Basic for Applications
by Diane Zak
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0619000201/ref=wl_it_dp/103-1101574-6534244?%5F
encoding=UTF8&colid=1PJ0CEXF2N2V6&coliid=I1C1SP3BIPI4SL&v=glance&n=283155

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Jezebel - 08 May 2006 05:44 GMT

If you're comfortable with VB, you might find it better to just to
experiment. The differences between VB and VBA are relatively minor. The
main difference is in the forms (different controls, different events, no
control arrays). Apart from that, most of what you need to learn is the Word
object model, and in my view -- given that you know VB -- it's just as easy
to learn that from Word itself, than from an independent source.

>I have about four years experience in VB 6 programming, plus I've
> branched out and have programmed a bit in REALbasic.
[quoted text clipped - 44 lines]
> by Diane Zak
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0619000201/ref=wl_it_dp/103-1101574-6534244?%5F
encoding=UTF8&colid=1PJ0CEXF2N2V6&coliid=I1C1SP3BIPI4SL&v=glance&n=283155

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Doug Robbins - Word MVP - 08 May 2006 08:39 GMT

I agree with Jezebel, with that background, it would be very hard to find a
suitable book.

The article "Getting To Grips With VBA Basics In 15 Minutes" at:

http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/VBABasicsIn15Mins.htm

may help a bit. In addition, there is a wealth of information and examples
in the Visual Basic Help file.

Signature

Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

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Tom_OM - 09 May 2006 00:44 GMT

Thank you, Jezebel and Doug, for your suggestions. You have been most
helpful.

>I agree with Jezebel, with that background, it would be very hard to find a
>suitable book.
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>may help a bit. In addition, there is a wealth of information and examples
>in the Visual Basic Help file.

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Cindy M -WordMVP- - 09 May 2006 07:22 GMT

Hi Tom_OM,

> Writing Word Macros (Paperback)
> by Steven Roman

For the Word object model (you know enough VB, I'd say),
besides the above, I'd recommend the Word 2000 VBA
Programmer's Reference from Wrox Press, if you can still
find it.

The Word part of the Office VBA Macros you can use today
would give you quite a bit of insight into using the object
model. I wrote it with the thought of teaching the object
model in mind. But I think the Wrox or O'Reilly book would
be a better "formal" text.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update
Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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