Looking for a guru's opinion here...

I'm wanting to learn to do some applications that use office.

Is an email client to big of a project to takle early on?
Excel programming was pretty simple. But an email client would require contacts and folders, plus I'd actually have to send out email with attachments etc... - a little more involved. But is it too involved?

I'm also looking at writing an app that can create, edit and delete word files which seems more complicated that excel? (though I haven't finished an app that can edit .xls files yet either.)

Anyway, where should I start?

Thanx.