reference guide suggestions?

[robfritts]

I'm looking for a valuable reference for VBA/macros, particularly within Excel if it makes a difference. I'm just starting to discover the power of automation within excel because I've found where my company stores (and how they mine) the data we had to access through a proprietary system. Can you guys recommend any particular reference or guide for this stuff?

[Iain Lewis]

Persoanlly I started off by recording some basic macros & looking at the code. The help files can be quite useful ( tho' sometimes they're more hinderence than help.).
Books by John Walkenbach always come highly recomended by other users I know. Have a look at his web site :

http://j-walk.com

[robfritts]

Good, good, and good.

All three things I've done and in the order I've done them.

I've been using macros (recording them & modifying them) for a few years, but never had a reason to dig into scripting. That's all changed now that we get to manage ourselves and have access to the data that we're measured on.

The help files are *really* good, but I was having trouble finding out that a function or method (what is a method anyway???) even existed. I'm pretty good at reading someone elses code and figuring out what it does and how, I was actually looking for a (programmer's?) reference that listed the objects, context, and maybe some samples... I guess actually, it's a help file in a book.

Help system is great, but it's like I've got to know it exists before I can find help on it, and I can't know it exists until I read about it somewhere else (someone else's code, obscure reference in another help example, etc).

[Ricky Morris]

From within VBA, press F2 to display the object browser. It lists all the classes and their members. This is a good way to find out what's available, then you can use Help to get more information.

[robfritts]

ah hah!

sorry, I'm completely lame when it comes to the VBA development environment... still haven't explored all it's menus yet, perhaps I should start there.

F2 is what I needed!

Thanks a million.