Advice needed on VBA books I'm considering

Hello all,

There are a couple VBA books I am considering. I don't want a book that teaches all the basics of programming - I've taken a number of computer classes, one of which was a Visual Basic 6 class. If I need to research basic VB syntax, I have a few books already to reference. I am looking for something that will explain properties, methods, and objects specific to Word mostly, and I am also interested in Outlook, Excel and Access.

Would I be better off purchasing a general VBA book, or would I be better off purchasing something specific to an application?

Some books I'm considering:

VB and VBA in a Nutshell: The Languages
by Paul Lomax

This book received high reviews on Amazon, but what concerns me is that it was published in 1998. Is it still relevant for Office 2003? It doesn't seem to be a beginner programming book either, which is positive.

VBA Developer's Handbook, 2nd Edition
by Ken Getz, Mike Gilbert

This book also received high reviews on Amazon, but it was published in 2001. Again I ask, is it relevant to Office 2003?

Word 2003 Document Automation with VBA, XML, XSLT, and Smart Documents
by Scott Driza

This book hasn't been published yet. Does anyone have any information on it?

Word 2003: Vba Programming
by COURSE ILT

This looks like it is only useful in a class environment. anyone have any comments on it?

If anyone has any comments on these or other books, please reply!

And finally, this looks worth looking into:

http://users.bigpond.net.au/gradley/vbatutor/

Thanks!

If you can, get to a book store and browse the books they have on offer. As you say you have some VB reference books already, can I suggest you look for either a reference to Office VBA or possibly two books, one for excel and one for word, that hold a reference section on the objects and properties. also if you can see the books you can see whether the layout and examples are ok. If you like it, then you can always go online for the (possibly) cheaper book.

If you picked up VB fairly easily, then you shouldn't have a problem with word/excel. The only thing that is annoying is that you need to use a lot of variables for each of the objects, just to get the intellisense working right... mostly.

Go for an intermediate to advanced, so as you get further into thing you can expand and not be wasting money on a book. They usually have the range on the back.

Alternatively, try looking online for tutorials and information, saves you getting the books... Although I prefer some thing meaty to refer to once in a while.

I have VBA Developer's Handbook, 2nd Edition by Ken Getz, Mike Gilbert and think it's great. I've even e-mailed Ken Getz on a couple of questions I had and got prompt replies. It has plenty of code examples, which I like. It covers everything from strings, numbers, and arrays, to class modules, API's, collections, dictionary object, FSO, and add-ins. It's 1000 pages long and reads like a text book (as opposed to a reference).

VBAhack