FrameMaker 6: Beyond the Basics

Overview

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

• Use several properties to refer to Range objects from macro statements.

• Apply formatting to ranges.

• Put values and formulas into cells.

• Simplify macros that record selections.

• Use the Object Browser to learn about objects, properties, and methods.

The world would be much simpler if everybody were the same size. Cars wouldn't need adjustable seats; heads would never get bumped on door frames; feet would never dangle from a chair. Of course, some new complexities would probably arise. When exchanging that ghastly outfit you received for your birthday, you wouldn't be able to claim it was the wrong size.

In Microsoft Excel 2002, if your worksheets and data files are all the same size, you don't need to worry about Range objects. If you never insert new lines into a budget, if you always put yearly totals in column M, if every month's transaction file has 5 columns and 120 rows, the macro recorder can take care of dealing with ranges for you.

In the real world of humans, however, people are different sizes, and clothes and cars have to adjust to fit them. And in the real world of worksheets, models and data files are also different sizes and you want your macros to fit them. Excel provides many properties for working with Range objects. In this chapter, you'll explore Range objects and in the process learn how the Object Browser can teach you about any unfamiliar object.

 On the CD   This chapter uses the practice file  Ranges.xls that you installed from the book's CD-ROM. For details about installing the practice files, see 'Using the Book's CD-ROM' at the beginning of this book.