Visual Basic in general and a moan

[Dave Neve]

Hi

I've been trying for a few months to understand and start to use Visual
Basics and nothing works.

The main problem is the Microsoft Help Pages.

The guy who wrote them should be shot. A list of functions in alphabetical
order that make no sense to a beginner.

Second problem is that every version is different.

I have 6.3 and I'm using a book for 6.0. (also tried a book on .NET)

I can't even write text into a multichoice box with my book. Both methods
just don't work. (always the same)

I therefore want to ask the group how people managed to learn VB.

Clearly, I'm not gonna be a brilliant programmer but I'm fed up with this
program and can't afford to waste much more time on it.

I managed to publish a Web site with FP and the help of a Microsoft
Newsgroup in 6 weeks from scratch.

After 6 weeks with VB, I can't write the simplest of aplicatons.

Thoroughly fed up with VB

Dave Neve

 

[Mike]

What are you trying to do with VB first of all? What kind of application are
you trying to create?
Theres all kinds of resources for VB.NET out there, theres also alot on VB6
still.
As for versions, theres VB4, VB5, VB6, and VB.NET. Not sure about V6.3?

What are actually trying to accomplish?

 

[Jonathan West]

Hi Dave,

First of all, you need to realise that VB6, VB.NET and VBA are significantly
different from each other, and reading a book that describes one while using
one of the others is bound to give rise to frustration.

Therefore, we need to start at the beginning. What language are you trying
to use?

 

[Helmut Weber]

Hi Dave,
it has always been a long chain of frustrations to get used to a new
programming language, as from Basic to Pascal, from Pascal to Prolog,
from Prolog to Lisp, from Word-Basic to Visual Basic, and the next
challenge is coming round the bend.
"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent
perspiration". Concerning Your particular case: Yes, methodoly of
documentation of MS-programs may need rethinking. There are hundreds
of perfect examples, but once you have accepted a good advice like
"option explicit" you are at a loss.
Keep on.
Greetings from Bavaria, Germany
Helmut Weber
"red.sys" & chr$(64) & "t-online.de"

 

[Jeff Hall]

The first thing you should do is make sure you have installed full support
for VBA in MSWord. You will find you can record macros and then look up the
context-sensitive help in Word's VB editor

Also, the VB editor will prompt you as you type VBA statements.
It's not so difficult as long as you learn how to use the Help and know
where to ask when you get stuck.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff Hall MSc MRICS
Director, Eon Commerce Ltd.
http://www.eon-commerce.com

Software available for you to evaluate before buying...
EasyHTML/Help CHM file Editor for MS Word
http://www.easyhtmlhelp.com

 

[Jay Freedman]

Jonathan, we've been down this road before. Have a look at this thread,
nearly a month ago:
http://groups.google.com/[email protected]

 

[Dave Neve]

Hi

Well, thanks for all the support anyway.

To briefly answer your questions, yes I did go onto the Web Sites you
recommended and managed to learn bits and pieces but that's the feeling
which is causing me frustration. (Bits and pieces rather than basic
principles)

Don't know exactly what I want to do with VB. It was more of a project to
improve my computer skills but there are times when I'm missing an
application and do several operations by hand in Windows.

Also, I know now that .NET is different to VB and so I've gone back to my
VB6 book but even that doesn't work very well with my version 6.3.

As for full support for VBA in Word, I'll look into that tomorrow but I'd
appreciate more details on this point JEFF HALL (thanks)

Regards

Dave Neve

 

[Jeff Hall]

Let me echo what Jon West has said. Be sure you understand that VBS+A is
not the same as the programming language VB nor the Web development
environment .NET

As you are asking your question in a Word group I assume you mean VBA for MS
Office.

Open any Word document and press Alt-F11
This opens the VBA Editor.

Use Tools - Macro - Record New Macro and then execute some Word commands.
When you have finished entering commands, stop the recording then use
Tools - Macro - Macros to select and Edit the macro you have recorded.

In the editor, highlight any statement and press F1 - you need full support
for VBA to have been installed with the MS Word installation.

VBA works across all MS Office apps and can be compiled into an EXE but
don't ask me how to do that bit!

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff Hall MSc MRICS
Director, Eon Commerce Ltd.
http://www.eon-commerce.com

Software available for you to evaluate before buying...
EasyHTML/Help CHM file Editor for MS Word
http://www.easyhtmlhelp.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------