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Description of Professional Excel Development

The Start-to-Finish Guide to Building State-of-the-Art Solutions with Excel 2007

In this book, four world-class Microsoft(R) Excel developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors--three of whom have been honored by Microsoft as Excel Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs)--show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's most powerful new features. Using their techniques,you can reduce development costs, time to market, and hassle--and build more effective, successful solutions. Fully updated for Excel 2007, this book starts where other books on Excel programming leave off. Through a hands-on case study project, you'll discover best practices for planning, architecting, and building Excel applications that are robust, secure, easy to maintain, and highly usable.

If you're a working developer, no other book on Excel programming offers you this much depth, insight, or value.

- Design worksheets that will be more useful and reliable
- Leverage built-in and application-specific add-ins
- Construct applications that behave like independent Windows programs
- Make the most of the new Ribbon user interface
- Create cross-version applications that work with legacy versions of Excel
- Utilize XML within Excel applications
- Understand and use Windows API calls
- Master VBA error handling, debugging, and performance optimization
- Develop applications based on data stored in Access, SQL Server, and other databases
- Build powerful visualization solutions with Excel charting engine
- Learn how to work with VB.NET and leverage its IDE
- Automate Microsoft Excel with VB.NET
- Create managed COM add-ins for Microsoft Excel with VB.NET
- Develop Excel solutions with Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO)
- Integrate Excel with Web Services
- Deploy applications more securely and efficiently

Title Information

ISBN:

9780321508799

Pages:

1176 pages

Format:

Paperback and CD-Rom

Product Code:

277678

Publisher:

Pearson Education (US)

Published:

06/05/2009

Edition:

2nd Revised edition

Press and Industry Reviews

"As Excel applications become more complex and the Windows development platform more powerful, Excel developers need books like this to help them evolve their solutions to the next level of sophistication. Professional Excel Development is a book for developers who want to build powerful, state-of-the-art Excel applications using the latest Microsoft technologies."
- Gabhan Berry, Program Manager, Excel Programmability, Microsoft

"The first edition of Professional Excel Development is my most-consulted and most-recommended book on Office development. The second edition expands both the depth and range. It shines because it takes every issue one step further than you expect. The book relies on the authors' current, real-world experience to cover not only how a feature works, but also the practical implications of using it in professional work."
- Shauna Kelly, Director, Thendara Green

"This book illustrates techniques that will result in well-designed, robust, and maintainable Excel-based applications. The authors' advice comes from decades of solid experience of designing and building applications.
The practicality of the methods is well illustrated by the example timesheet application that is developed step-by-step through the book. Every serious Excel developer should read this and learn from it. I did."
- Bill Manville, Application Developer, Bill Manville Associates

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About Stephen Bullen and Rob Bovey and Dennis Wallentin and John Green

Rob Bovey, President of Application Professionals, has developed several Excel add-ins shipped by Microsoft. He coauthored the Microsoft Excel 97 Developers Kit and Excel 2007 VBA Programmer's Reference.

Dennis Wallentin has developed Excel solutions since the 1980s through his firm, XL-Dennis, based in A-stersund, Sweden.

Stephen Bullen, coauthor of The Excel 2007 VBA Programmer's Reference, owns Office Automation, Ltd., based in Essex, Ireland.

John Green owns Execuplan Consulting, a Sydney, Australia-based consultancy specializing in Excel and Access development.

Bovey, Bullen, and Green hold Microsoft's prestigious Most Valuable Professional (MVP) honor.

Contents of Professional Excel Development

1. Introduction
About This Book
Who Should Read This Book
Excel Developer Categories
Excel as an Application Development Platform
Structure
Examples
Supported Versions of Excel
Typefaces
On the CD
Help and Support
The Professional Excel Development Web Site
Feedback

2. Application Architectures
Concepts

3. Excel and VBA Development Best Practices
Naming Conventions
Best Practices for Application Structure and Organization
General Application Development Best Practices

4. Worksheet Design
Principles of Good Worksheet UI Design
Program Rows and Columns: The Fundamental UI Design Technique
Defined Names
Styles
User Interface Drawing Techniques
Data Validation
Conditional Formatting
Using Controls on Worksheets
Practical Example

5. Function, General, and Application-Specific Add-ins
The Four Stages of an Application
Function Library Add-ins
General Add-ins
Application-Specific Add-ins
Practical Example

6. Dictator Applications
Structure of a Dictator Application
Practical Example

7. Using Class Modules to Create Objects
Creating Objects
Creating a Collection
Trapping Events
Raising Events
Practical Example

8. Advanced Command Bar Handling
Command Bar Design
Table-Driven Command Bars
Putting It All Together
Loading Custom Icons from Files
Hooking Command Bar Control Events
Practical Example

9. Introduction to XML
XML

10. The Office 2007 Ribbon User Interface
The RibbonX Paradigm
An Introduction to the Office 2007 Open XML File Format
Ribbon Design and Coding Best Practices
Table-Driven Ribbon UI Customization
Advanced Problem Solving
Further Reading
Related Portals

11. Creating Cross-Version Applications
Command Bar and Ribbon User Interfaces in a Single Application
Other Excel 2007 Development Issues
Windows Vista Security and Folder Structure

12. Understanding and Using Windows API Calls Overview
Working with the Screen
Working with Windows
Working with the Keyboard
Working with the File System and Network
Practical Examples

13. UserForm Design and Best Practices
Principles
Control Fundamentals
Visual Effects
UserForm Positioning and Sizing
Wizards
Dynamic UserForms
Modeless UserForms
Control Specifics
Practical Example

14. Interfaces
What Is an Interface?
Code Reuse
Defining a Custom Interface
Implementing a Custom Interface
Using a Custom Interface
Polymorphic Classes
Improving Robustness
Simplifying Development
A Plug-in Architecture
Practical Example

15. VBA Error Handling
Error Handling Concepts
The Single Exit Point Principle
Simple Error Handling
Complex Project Error Handler Organization
The Central Error Handler
Error Handling in Classes and UserForms
Putting It All Together
Practical Example

16. VBA Debugging
Basic VBA Debugging Techniques
The Immediate Window (Ctrl+G)
The Call Stack (Ctrl+L)
The Watch Window
The Locals Window
The Object Browser (F2)
Creating and Running a Test Harness
Using Assertions
Debugging Shortcut Keys That Every Developer Should Know

17. Optimizing VBA Performance
Measuring Performance
The PerfMon Utility
Creative Thinking
Macro-Optimization
Micro-Optimization

18. Introduction to Database Development
An Introduction to Databases
An Introduction to SQL
Data Access with ADO
Further Reading

19. Programming with Access and SQL Server
A Note on the Northwind Sample Database
Designing the Data Access Tier
Working with Microsoft Access Databases
Working with Microsoft SQL Server Databases
Upsizing from Access to SQL Server
Further Reading
Practical Example

20. Data Manipulation Techniques
Excel’s Data Structures
Data Processing Features
Advanced Functions

21. Advanced Charting Techniques
Fundamental Techniques
VBA Techniques

22. Controlling Other Office Applications
Fundamentals
The Primary Office Application Object Models
Further Reading
Practical Example

23. Excel and Visual Basic 6
A Hello World ActiveX DLL
Why Use VB6 ActiveX DLLs in Excel VBA Projects
In-Process Versus Out-of-Process
Automating Excel from a VB6 EXE
COM Add-ins
A “Hello World” COM Add-in
The Add-in Designer
Installation Considerations
The AddinInstance Events
Command Bar Handling
Why Use a COM Add-in?
Automation Add-ins
Practical Examples

24. Excel and VB.NET
.NET Framework Fundamentals
Visual Basic.NET
Debugging
Useful Development Tools
Automating Excel
Resources in .NET Solutions
Retrieving Data with ADO.NET
Further Reading
Additional Development Tools
Q&A Forums
Practical Example–PETRAS Report Tool .NET

25. Writing Managed COM Add-ins with VB.NET
Choosing a Development Toolset
Creating a Managed COM Add-in
Building the User Interface
Creating Managed Automation Add-ins
Manually Register and Unregister COM Add-ins
Using Classes in VB.NET
Using Classic ADO to Export Data to Excel
Shimming COM Add-ins
Related Blogs
Additional Development Tools
Practical Example–PETRAS Report Tool.NET

26. Developing Excel Solutions with Visual Studio Tools for Office System (VSTO)
What Is VSTO?
When Should You Use VSTO?
Working with VSTO Add-Ins
Working with VSTO Templates and Workbook Solutions
Deployment and Security
Further Reading
Related Portal and Blogs
Additional Development Tools

27. XLLs and the C API
Why Create an XLL-Based Worksheet Function
Creating an XLL Project in Visual Studio
The Structure of an XLL
The XLOPER and OPER Data Types
The Excel4 Function
Commonly Used C API Functions
XLOPERs and Memory Management
Registering and Unregistering Custom Worksheet Functions
Sample Application Function
Debugging the Worksheet Functions
Miscellaneous Topics
Additional Resources

28. Excel and Web Services
Web Services
Practical Example

29. Providing Help, Securing, Packaging, and Distributing
Providing Help
Securing
Packaging
Distributing

Index