J-Walk & Associates, Inc.

Fan Mail

I get a fair amount of email from people who have bought my books. Most of them start out something like this...

I have your book, and I can't find the section that will tell me how to do xxxxx. Here's what I want to do...

It would be nice if I could provide free assistance to everyone who buys one of my books. Obviously, I can't do that.

On rare occasions, I'll receive an email from a reader who isn't looking for free consulting. Here's one that arrived yesterday:

I have been using Microsoft Excel for several years and my excel skills are good. I am nowhere close at the level of your Excel skills. I have read both of your Excel books: Excel 2007 Bible and Excel Programming with VBA and I must say that those books are the best. I always recommend those book to all of my friends.

I am a graduate student majoring in finance and we use Microsoft Excel a lot in class and in our case studies. Those books have took my Excel skills to a whole new level. Before, I didn't want to touch VBA because the language look way too confusing. I was too intimidated. But after reading your books I feel more confident using VBA. VBA takes excel to a whole new level and it is amazing what someone can do with it. I have learned so much after reading your books. I know that when I start looking for a job, my Excel skills are going to put me ahead from the other applicants. I just wanted to say thank you for writing these books and making those books very easy to understand.

- Reader Comments -

Following are comments in response to this item.
The most recent comment is at the bottom.

1. By Randy. Comment posted 16 August, 2008 11:58am

   John, I am a High School Computer Teacher in LA. Regarding the requests for help, I think a lot of folks take things for granted, or they want to take an easy way out. We have become a "I want it now, but I don't want to make the effort to really learn about it" society. My students often ask me, "Can't you just tell me the answer?" If I tell them directly, they don't remember, if they arrive at the answer through Socratic critical thinking, they will remember it.
   
   Your books offer some quick situational fixes, but what happens when the quick fix isn't there? What happens when the code or formula just won't work? The real value of your books, is being able to apply the concepts that you have presented to one's own projects. It takes a real effort to collect one's thoughts, outline, write and prepare error-free easy to understand texts for publication. John, thanks for sharing your knowledge with the rest of us.
2. By Keith. Comment posted 07 May, 2010 8:45am

   John, I'm a big fan of your VBA books. I've been writing VBA code for about 12 years. After reading Excel 2003 Power Programming with VBA the picture became so much clearer. I liked how you started out with fundamentals and built on those fundamentals, teaching people how to program VBA correctly and why. My book now looks like a worn out Bible with hi-lighter marks and bookmark sheets everywhere and the pages starting to yellow. I recently bought the Kindle version of the 2007 edition of your book and am starting to read it on my iPad. I'm not sure if you have it in your 2007 book, but I was looking through the 2003 edition and was trying to find something on retaining form ojbect values. For example, a person clicks a checkbox on a form, then the next time the form is initialized it recalls whether the checkbox was checked or not. I was looking for something like this in your book and couldn't find it. I think it would be a great addition to the next edition of your book.
3. By santosh. Comment posted 30 June, 2012 5:27am

   You are so Amazing