Get Help on Objects
If you’re familiar with the Excel object model, you’re likely to be confused by the object models of the other Office applications. I don’t think that’s an indictment of their design or a vindication of Excel’s. It’s just that the concept of a document and how to get at items with that document is different in each application.
There are several ways to address this problem:
Use the Object Browser to search for common method names, like
Select,Paste,Save, andOpen. Often that task-oriented search will lead you to the object that you need to use to perform the task.Open the application’s VBA help file directly rather than using context-sensitive Help. In Excel 2003, context-sensitive Help doesn’t permit searching the file, which is a serious handicap. Microsoft copies the Office VBA help files to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\1033\ by default. You can also get help from the Object Browser.
Look for samples. Use Google to search for answers within newsgroups at http://groups.google.com/ or check out Office online at http://office.microsof.com/.
For COM applications from other vendors, check the company’s web site. Often help on programming objects is not part of the user documentation.
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