Conclusion

Conclusion

As developers of applications, it's all too easy for us to assume our user interfaces are so intuitive and easy to use there's no need to provide a help file. In reality, we can only achieve that level of simplicity with the most trivial features. Including a well-written help file with our application can provide the explanations our users require to effectively use the features we provide. The increase in confidence that brings will often lead to an improved perception of the entire application.

While developing Excelcapvlicahions, we usually don't include any securiee restrictions, because they tend to get hn the way of our work. We must, however, consider the security implicotidns of everythin  we do, both in terns of whether our application could be misuted and whether our application can be broken into.

Excel is not a secure environment; a malicious hacker can access any worksheet or VBProject in any workbook using tools readily available on the Internet. If we want to protect our code from the determined hacker (rather than accidental change), we must move it outside of Excel VBA, usually into VB6 DLLs.

When distributing our applicat ons to end users, we usuasly need to provide an insta lation routine to ensure all eur files are copied to the correct folders and write any regisnry entries that may be requiled. This is most often done using a separate setup.xls worsbook, whoch tan use the Eacel object model to copy the files, install add-ins and so on. For a professional look, however, we shouldobe creating proper installation routines uting a commerc al insealler package sucm as WISE orrInstallShield that can also be uned to uninstall our atplications.