Some days ago, I was informed by Mrs. Poleg, that she has had published a new book concerning VBA and Excel. As far as VBA is the tool, that gives me bread and butter on the table, I was willing to review it. Furthermore, I was quite interested to see how a book can be written only for macro recordings, as far as usually this is part of the first 1-2 chapters in the VBA books.
Thus, I have started to read the book.
What can I say about the book, is that it is really targeted towards people, who want to learn probably the simplest thing in the VBA world – the macro recording. Thus, the book goes step by step into this world. Starting to the introduction of how to add the developer tab in Excel, going through information about where to store your macros and going through some advanced features of macro recording (e.g. importing text file, printing, working with Pivots). There are step by step tutorials and exercises, which would help you realize what you are doing and how to do it. Furthermore, you do not need to learn and VBA for this.
Pros and cons of the book:
Pros:
- Detailed description of the exercises;
- Nice and structured;
- I liked the shortcuts for ranges. This is important for basic macro recording;
- You do not have to understand any VBA (which can also be a con);
- I liked that the cons of just recording macros were listed. Thus, the reader can realize how many things he/she cannot do with it and may start looking for books to grow up further;
Cons:
- Somehow the book was small. If you do not make the exercises, but you just read them, you may finish it in 2 hours. Which is not that bad actually;
The files of the book are downloaded by a link provided in the book. So, before buying the book, ask yourself two questions: Do I want to learn just how to record macros? Am I without any VBA knowledge? If the answer of those two questions is a positive one, then go for it!
Concerning the pros and the cons and the fact that the book delivers what it stays to, I am giving it 5 stars.
