Hi folks,
I'm new to this forum, but hopefully someone has an idea on the below
situation.

First of all, I am not a Windows programmer (VB, VBScript, Visual C++,
ASP, etc). I have written several programs using Unix shell scripting
(bash, sed, grep, etc) that are not really anything more than "find a
string and output that string to an outfile". Over the iterations, I
have upgraded it to write out in a tab delimited format and even
included a cell that totals the contents of column B (included:
=SUM(B1..B300) in my last cell. All along, I have just written the
file as tab delimited plain text with a .xls extension.

I am sensing an upcoming need to explore more of Excel's functions,
like bolding text, writing to different worksheets in the same
workbook, etc. Does anyone know of a resource that explains Excel
file formatting to the degree that I can produce an Excel file as the
output to a simple program?

Many thanks,
Blake Thompson

Try the Help in excel, F1 key or the menu. Also do some searches on google.


"Blake" wrote in message
om...
Hi folks,
I'm new to this forum, but hopefully someone has an idea on the below
situation.

First of all, I am not a Windows programmer (VB, VBScript, Visual C++,
ASP, etc). I have written several programs using Unix shell scripting
(bash, sed, grep, etc) that are not really anything more than "find a
string and output that string to an outfile". Over the iterations, I
have upgraded it to write out in a tab delimited format and even
included a cell that totals the contents of column B (included:
=SUM(B1..B300) in my last cell. All along, I have just written the
file as tab delimited plain text with a .xls extension.

I am sensing an upcoming need to explore more of Excel's functions,
like bolding text, writing to different worksheets in the same
workbook, etc. Does anyone know of a resource that explains Excel
file formatting to the degree that I can produce an Excel file as the
output to a simple program?

Many thanks,
Blake Thompson

Turn on the macro recorder and do the steps manually - turn it off and look
at the recorded code.

Macro Recorder:

Tools=Macro=Record a New Macro

This is inefficient code, but it gives you a basic idea of the syntax need.

Read post in this forum.

Ask specific questions when you need help.

Consult the Knowledge Base

http://support.microsoft.com

go to Advanced Search.

--
Regards,
Tom Ogilvy

Blake wrote in message
om...
Hi folks,
I'm new to this forum, but hopefully someone has an idea on the below
situation.

First of all, I am not a Windows programmer (VB, VBScript, Visual C++,
ASP, etc). I have written several programs using Unix shell scripting
(bash, sed, grep, etc) that are not really anything more than "find a
string and output that string to an outfile". Over the iterations, I
have upgraded it to write out in a tab delimited format and even
included a cell that totals the contents of column B (included:
=SUM(B1..B300) in my last cell. All along, I have just written the
file as tab delimited plain text with a .xls extension.

I am sensing an upcoming need to explore more of Excel's functions,
like bolding text, writing to different worksheets in the same
workbook, etc. Does anyone know of a resource that explains Excel
file formatting to the degree that I can produce an Excel file as the
output to a simple program?

Many thanks,
Blake Thompson

Reverse engineering.... I like it.

Thanks for the hint Tom, I'll try it.

Blake


"Tom Ogilvy" wrote in message ...
Turn on the macro recorder and do the steps manually - turn it off and look
at the recorded code.

Macro Recorder:

Tools=Macro=Record a New Macro

This is inefficient code, but it gives you a basic idea of the syntax need.

Read post in this forum.

Ask specific questions when you need help.

Consult the Knowledge Base

http://support.microsoft.com

go to Advanced Search.

--
Regards,
Tom Ogilvy

Blake wrote in message
om...
Hi folks,
I'm new to this forum, but hopefully someone has an idea on the below
situation.

First of all, I am not a Windows programmer (VB, VBScript, Visual C++,
ASP, etc). I have written several programs using Unix shell scripting
(bash, sed, grep, etc) that are not really anything more than "find a
string and output that string to an outfile". Over the iterations, I
have upgraded it to write out in a tab delimited format and even
included a cell that totals the contents of column B (included:
=SUM(B1..B300) in my last cell. All along, I have just written the
file as tab delimited plain text with a .xls extension.

I am sensing an upcoming need to explore more of Excel's functions,
like bolding text, writing to different worksheets in the same
workbook, etc. Does anyone know of a resource that explains Excel
file formatting to the degree that I can produce an Excel file as the
output to a simple program?

Many thanks,
Blake Thompson