Word VBA Reference Recommendations?

[Steve Sanford]

First, thanks to Doug Robbins for the revealing reply to my "Referring to
the beginning of a line" question a few days ago. It opened up the new world
of "Predefined Bookmarks" to me.

So... are there any books or online sources of info and examples of Word VBA
that are particularly outstanding? If I were to buy one book on this
subject, what should it be?

So far, I have mainly been struggling along with the Help screens and days
and hours of trial-and-error. With fair success, I might add.

Note I still use Word97 but may upgrade sometime.

Thanks,
SteveS

 

[Jonathan West]

Hi Steve,

There are a large number of VBA code examples on the Word MVP FAQ site
www.mvps.org/word/

 

[Mark Tangard]

Steve,

I think, in retrospect, if I had to choose one book to help me through
the toughest periods of learning VBA, that book would be something like
"Deep Tissue Massage: A Visual Guide to Techniques" by Art Riggs.

Yes, seriously. I've never seen a book on VBA that helped anywhere near
as much as reading these newsgroups. And if your primary aim is indeed
to find "particularly outstanding" code samples (= code that makes ya go
'oooooooh'), then IMHO a book is even less likely to help. At the other
extreme -- for code almost always worth a smile or a positively raised
eyebrow -- cruising randomly through the articles on the MVP site can be
quite edifying. See http://www.mvps.org/word.

If you feel you *must* buy a book, I think I found the VBA Developer's
Handbook the least useless. See also the third section of the page at
http://word.mvps.org/tutorials/bookrecommendationscontent.htm. And
since the 'books' question appears on these groups with some regularity,
a Google search may turn up other recommendations.

 

[Word Heretic]

G'day "Steve Sanford" <[email protected]>,

My Word VBA Spellbook, available from my website.

Steve Hudson
Word Heretic Sydney Australia
Tricky stuff with Word or words

Email: Steve at wordheretic.com


Steve Sanford was spinning this yarn:

First, thanks to Doug Robbins for the revealing reply to my "Referring to
the beginning of a line" question a few days ago. It opened up the new world
of "Predefined Bookmarks" to me.

So... are there any books or online sources of info and examples of Word VBA
that are particularly outstanding? If I were to buy one book on this
subject, what should it be?

So far, I have mainly been struggling along with the Help screens and days
and hours of trial-and-error. With fair success, I might add.

Note I still use Word97 but may upgrade sometime.

Thanks,
SteveS

Steve Hudson

Word Heretic, Sydney, Australia

wordheretic.com

If answers r 2 terse, ask again or hassle an MVP,
at least they get recognition for it then.
Lengthy replies offlist require payment.

 

[Ed]

Sorry for jumping in, Mark, but ...

Steve,
<snip>
If you feel you *must* buy a book, I think I found the VBA Developer's
Handbook the least useless.
--

I have the Word 2000 Developer's Handbook, and it has been the most helpful
book I've ever seen. It is my only Word VBA book so far, and breaks out the
whole slew of objects, methods, and so forth. Granted, I'm fairly novice at
VBA (I'm still not sure why they call them "methods" and "properties"?!?).
But it works well for me. (I'm looking for something this comprehensive for
Excel, too.)

Just my $0.002!
Ed (extra zero intentional!)

 

[Perry]

Teach yourself series is quite good.
Mathew Harris' VBA in 21 days covering Word/Excel VBA (Office 97 - ISBN 0672
31016 3)
is a good tool to learn the concept of Office Automation, as well as each
seperate application's
VBA specifics.

Another book from Teach yourself series:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookSearch/isbnInquiry.asp?sourceid=0000251
0597149492762&ISBN=0830009000&bfdate=01-13-2004+15:28:05
Mind the wordwrap in above URL

Another interesting book regarding interfacing and application design:
Title: Inmates are running the Asylum.
Author: Alan Cooper (Visual Basic before it was sold too MS)
ISBN: 0672 31649 8
Deals with: Goal-Directed Application Design
His views on how applications should be designed can be best viewed in ...
Windows XP
Personified interfacing; System messaging is politer than ever; optimized
processor usage ...etc.
One metaphore covers the book:
Customer orders a slice of bread; developer delivers all the ingredients to
do so but forgets
all about the slice.

Krgrds,
Perry

 

[Mark Tangard]

Sorry for jumping in, Mark, but ...

Sorry? Newsgroups are designed for jumping.

I have the Word 2000 Developer's Handbook, and it has been the most helpful
book I've ever seen.

Whatever works. But:

It is my only Word VBA book so far

Then how can you compare it to others?

(I'm still not sure why they call them "methods" and "properties"?!?).

I never have been either, but one very good analogy that helped me a lot
at the beginning, and whose source I've never been able to recall (though
I'm sure it wasn't the Handbook), is:

objects = nouns
methods = verbs
properties = adjectives

 

[Ed]

Whatever works. But:


Then how can you compare it to others?

I'm comparing it to the Excel VBA books I have, and the other books I have
borrowed from other users. I jumped into Excel VBA before Word; in Word, I
was mostly content with the macro recorder ... until that fateful day when I
*had* to do more!

I never have been either, but one very good analogy that helped me a lot
at the beginning, and whose source I've never been able to recall (though
I'm sure it wasn't the Handbook), is:

objects = nouns
methods = verbs
properties = adjectives

That really does help! I'll have to put that somewhere where I can remember
it. It will help me figure out what I'm trying to look up - what I want to
do, do it to, or how to do it - because you can't find it in an index or
help unless you know what they call it! (Only the MVPs know what I *meant*
to say - sometimes! <G> )

Ed