publishing and books

I don't generally complaing about books so much, but this one I feel like burning. It was so skimpy in its coverage of each topic, that I found it pretty much useless. 30 pages about microsoft word - not very much, IMO. I would reommend Michael Kofler's "Definitive Guide to Excel VBA" (Apress) for Excel. Possibly Guy Hard-Davis "Word 2000 Developer's Handbook" (Sybex) for Word. And MS-online help for the other applications, i guess. Others have had better luck with this book it seems, so good luck in your own choice!

I had been working with the Office 2000 Suite and needed to create some automation. I was able to successfully link a Word document to an Access database in order to create an automated status report. The book also assisted in the creation of the template (in the Word document) and how to lock cells/data within the Word document to prevent manipulation.

What I did not like was the slow pace of the book. Two-thirds of each application section (Word, Excel, etc.) was just a rehash of "Office automation 101", information that could be gleaned from working with macros. I think that may be beneficial to someone just beginning work with Office Automation and VBA, however it is not to useful for the intermediate/advanced user.

"Developing Solutions With Office 2000 Components and VBA" is a good book for someone who understands the big picture of the hows and whys of VBA. If you need to be led through a few complete examples or see why you would want to program a certain situation, this book is not for you. Aitken warns you of this in the introduction. For those of us a little slow on the uptake, better find another book with which to start. Come back to this book when you are ready to develop.