If you use Word enough, you probably feel that you should be able to write reports, fax memos, or perform simple word processing tasks -- particularly repetitive ones -- with far greater ease and efficiency than you do now. The solution is to use Visual Basic for Applications to control Word programmatically. By writing a VBA macro, you can tap into the Word object model to automate common or repetitive tasks, thereby increasing your overall productivity. Learning Word Programming is the introduction to Word VBA that allows you to do just that.

Learning Word Programming provides Word users, as well as programmers who are not familiar with the Word object model, with a solid introduction to writing VBA macros and programs. In particular, the book focuses on:

• The Visual Basic Editor and the Word VBA programming environment. Word features a complete and very powerful integrated development environment for writing, running, testing, and debugging VBA macros.
• The VBA programming language (which is the same programming language used by Microsoft Excel, Access, and PowerPoint, as well as the retail editions of Visual Basic).
• The Word object model. Word exposes nearly all of its functionality through its object model, which allows Word to be controlled programmatically using VBA. While the Word object model, with almost 200 objects, is the largest among the Office applications, readers need be familiar with only a handful of objects. Learning Word Programming focuses on these essential objects, but includes a discussion of a great many more objects as well.

Learning Word Programming is written in a terse, no-nonsense manner that is characteristic of Steven Roman's straightforward, practical approach. Instead of a slow-paced tutorial with a lot of hand-holding, Roman offers the essential information about Word VBA that you must master to program effectively. This tutorial is reinforced by interesting and useful examples that solve practical programming problems, like generating tables of a particular format, managing shortcut keys, creating fax cover sheets, and reformatting documents.

Learning Word Programming is the book you need to delve into the basics of Word VBA programming, enabling you to increase your power and productivity when using Microsoft Word.