VBA Course (VB/VBA)

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VBA Course recommendations needed. I want to take one that is along the lines of a seminar go for 3 days teach you program answer your questions and set you on the right path……. Not a standard college course.

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Never took a sit-down, seminar type course. I did view 8 videos from AppDev. They offer rather limited exposure for a beginner. No depth, no methodology, not highly recommended. But, I did learn a thing or two. The Query_close event was covered very well and that’s one of my favorite events thanks to that video. Glad the boss paid for it, though. Learned the most from running others’ code and then reading/deciphering it.

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I agree with Kevin. You will learn a lot more from running and looking at code than you will at a three day conference. Of course, the conference will likely be 3 days of running and looking at code.

I can’t program my way out of a paper bag, but I’ve written macros that throw data around in Excel, create and send messages to coworkers when there’s food upstairs, and most recently, hand off a tech support email to a toadie before it gets QA’d. All this and more I’ve learned from O’Reilly books (the best) and Special Edition Using Microsoft Office 2000.

Go to your local library and pick up Writing Excel Macros or somesuch and try out some of those babies. Then come back here and ask questions until the break down and answer you.

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Hi Kevin,

I just want to stick up for the AppDev Office/VBA course (on CD) – I found it to be a useful review and it filled in some missing pieces in my knowhow (and definitely worth it when the boss is paying).

What’s best really depends on the invidual. I agree with you that the only real way to learn VBA is by doing it, and studying up on stuff as you need it (and studying the code of people who are better than you are (better than I am, that is!). In a sense no one can teach you programming, you have to learn it for yourself.

But that’s no reason to deprive oneself of the help (and enjoyment) that can be gotten by reading a good book on the topic or taking a course. It’s all grist for the mill.

My 2 cents…

Gary

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I wonder if the CD course is the same as the video course?

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I am going to look into the CD course, but I am also going to be taking a 3 day hands on course at Microsystems in Chicago. Thanks for the input.

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VBA in what application? It differs between applications, so your best bet is to look for “advanced” training on the application you use the most. Unfortunately, most of the so-called advanced training barely scratches the surface of VBA, so don’t expect too much from it.

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Not a course recommendation but…

Before you get into programming too much, make sure that you really, really, really know the application that you will be programming. Otherwise, you’ll spend your weekends trying to reinvent built-in features.

For Word that includes:
Styles,
AutoText
Templates
Styles
Numbering
Cross-References
Fields
Tables of Contents
Tables of Figures
Captions
The drawing layer
Styles
Templates
Find and Replace
Tables
AutoText
Styles
Templates
Cross References
Fields
Online Forms and the Forms Toolbar
Global Templates

You may have noticed that I mentioned a few topics more than once. That is because they (1) are very important (2) may seem deceptively simple or boring, and (3) require revisiting after learning something else in depth.

For a solid background in Word I would suggest you buy my Legal Users Guide to Word (which really ought to be titled the Intermediate Users Guide to Word).

If you start programming without this background you will learn programming but will be far less productive at it than you might otherwise be.

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And of course, Woody and his colleagues specialise in Word and and all the rest of Office!
Visit the newly designed Woody’s Books Page and take your pick – they are the best!

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Great list but don’t forget
CUSTOM PROPERTIES!

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