Hello,
I am an advanced user in Excel and Access ('00, '02, '03), and I was
wondering about the possible changes in VB which will occur as my company
will be upgrading to Office 2007 later this year. I support and create files
with custom VB code (Office 2003 is equipped with VB 6.5), and I am not
familiar with .NET or any upgrades beyond VB6. Will the new Office version
be able to handle the existing code from my original 2003 files? If the VB
syntax is different in the new suite, should I be looking for a VB.NET book
or this VB2005 I have heard about recently. I cannot seem to find VB specs
for Office...

Thanks,
--
Jason (advanced Office user)

VBA is unchanged in Excel 2007. There have been enhancements to the various
object models of course for the new features in 2007. 99.9% of your
existing code should run fine bearing in mind that the Ribbon has replaced
commandbars. Commandbars code runs without error but the changes it makes
are all shunted off to the Add-Ins tab.

It will be a long time, if ever, until we see VBA replaced by .Net within
Office.

--
Jim
"Jason" wrote in message
...
| Hello,
| I am an advanced user in Excel and Access ('00, '02, '03), and I was
| wondering about the possible changes in VB which will occur as my company
| will be upgrading to Office 2007 later this year. I support and create
files
| with custom VB code (Office 2003 is equipped with VB 6.5), and I am not
| familiar with .NET or any upgrades beyond VB6. Will the new Office
version
| be able to handle the existing code from my original 2003 files? If the
VB
| syntax is different in the new suite, should I be looking for a VB.NET
book
| or this VB2005 I have heard about recently. I cannot seem to find VB
specs
| for Office...
|
| Thanks,
| --
| Jason (advanced Office user)

It will be a long time, if ever, until we see VBA replaced by .Net within
Office.

Based on nothing but intuition, I'm not sure I agree with that statement. I
would certainly agree that support for VBA will be around for a very, very
long time (15+ years -- witness support for XLM and XLL). However, I think
we will see NET in Office sooner rather than later. VSTO is a step in that
direction, but it is a rather clunky solution, especially the CodeBehind
scheme. I feel quite sure we won't see NET in the next version of Office,
but the version after that, perhaps. Microsoft has bet the farm on NET and I
think they will put it anywhere they can.

VBA hasn't been updated since 2000, and that's a long time in the software
world. The NET Framework is on its third iteration in less time than that.
Microsoft is putting its development resources and dollars on NET.

I, for one, like NET a lot. In terms of capability and features, it runs
circles around VBA. Imagine what you could do with an Excel application if
the full NET Framework were fully integrated with Excel. It would open a
whole new world. My feeling is that VSTO is an interim solution that is
simply a placeholder for a full integration between Office and NET. Of
course, they will have to have the capability to run NET and VBA in tandem,
two code bases in the same workbook. Given that they can do that, I bet
we'll see NET in Office within the next 3 releases.


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting
www.cpearson.com
(email on the web site)



"Jim Rech" wrote in message
...
VBA is unchanged in Excel 2007. There have been enhancements to the
various
object models of course for the new features in 2007. 99.9% of your
existing code should run fine bearing in mind that the Ribbon has replaced
commandbars. Commandbars code runs without error but the changes it makes
are all shunted off to the Add-Ins tab.

It will be a long time, if ever, until we see VBA replaced by .Net within
Office.

--
Jim
"Jason" wrote in message
...
| Hello,
| I am an advanced user in Excel and Access ('00, '02, '03), and I was
| wondering about the possible changes in VB which will occur as my
company
| will be upgrading to Office 2007 later this year. I support and create
files
| with custom VB code (Office 2003 is equipped with VB 6.5), and I am not
| familiar with .NET or any upgrades beyond VB6. Will the new Office
version
| be able to handle the existing code from my original 2003 files? If the
VB
| syntax is different in the new suite, should I be looking for a VB.NET
book
| or this VB2005 I have heard about recently. I cannot seem to find VB
specs
| for Office...
|
| Thanks,
| --
| Jason (advanced Office user)

Time will tell, Chip. I hope you're right of course. If you are we'd see
..Net integration with Excel 15 at the earliest. That will hit the streets
in perhaps 2013. I think that's a 'long time' and I had to say 'if ever'
since MS hasn't stated their plans.

--
Jim
"Chip Pearson" wrote in message
...
| It will be a long time, if ever, until we see VBA replaced by .Net within
| Office.
|
| Based on nothing but intuition, I'm not sure I agree with that statement.
I
| would certainly agree that support for VBA will be around for a very, very
| long time (15+ years -- witness support for XLM and XLL). However, I think
| we will see NET in Office sooner rather than later. VSTO is a step in that
| direction, but it is a rather clunky solution, especially the CodeBehind
| scheme. I feel quite sure we won't see NET in the next version of Office,
| but the version after that, perhaps. Microsoft has bet the farm on NET and
I
| think they will put it anywhere they can.
|
| VBA hasn't been updated since 2000, and that's a long time in the software
| world. The NET Framework is on its third iteration in less time than that.
| Microsoft is putting its development resources and dollars on NET.
|
| I, for one, like NET a lot. In terms of capability and features, it runs
| circles around VBA. Imagine what you could do with an Excel application if
| the full NET Framework were fully integrated with Excel. It would open a
| whole new world. My feeling is that VSTO is an interim solution that is
| simply a placeholder for a full integration between Office and NET. Of
| course, they will have to have the capability to run NET and VBA in
tandem,
| two code bases in the same workbook. Given that they can do that, I bet
| we'll see NET in Office within the next 3 releases.
|
|
| --
| Cordially,
| Chip Pearson
| Microsoft MVP - Excel
| Pearson Software Consulting
| www.cpearson.com
| (email on the web site)
|
|
|
| "Jim Rech" wrote in message
| ...
| VBA is unchanged in Excel 2007. There have been enhancements to the
| various
| object models of course for the new features in 2007. 99.9% of your
| existing code should run fine bearing in mind that the Ribbon has
replaced
| commandbars. Commandbars code runs without error but the changes it
makes
| are all shunted off to the Add-Ins tab.
|
| It will be a long time, if ever, until we see VBA replaced by .Net
within
| Office.
|
| --
| Jim
| "Jason" wrote in message
| ...
| | Hello,
| | I am an advanced user in Excel and Access ('00, '02, '03), and I was
| | wondering about the possible changes in VB which will occur as my
| company
| | will be upgrading to Office 2007 later this year. I support and
create
| files
| | with custom VB code (Office 2003 is equipped with VB 6.5), and I am
not
| | familiar with .NET or any upgrades beyond VB6. Will the new Office
| version
| | be able to handle the existing code from my original 2003 files? If
the
| VB
| | syntax is different in the new suite, should I be looking for a VB.NET
| book
| | or this VB2005 I have heard about recently. I cannot seem to find VB
| specs
| | for Office...
| |
| | Thanks,
| | --
| | Jason (advanced Office user)
|
|
|