Book excerpt: Thirty clearly defined lessons take the reader from understanding the parts of an Excel application into building applications to work with data, formulas, charts, and the enhanced XML capabilities of the new Excel "X" Book is designed to teach the core concepts of Excel over a weekend or in just fifteen hours, with each session being thirty minutes Applicable to Excel 2000, Excel 2002, and the latest release, Excel 2003 Helps Excel power users in fields such as accounting, finance, operations management, and market research to begin automating data manipulation in Excel quickly, so they can handle real-world projects A how-to guide to using Excel's programmability to create custom data-processing and analysis solutions Covers security, debugging, and error handling Companion Web site includes sample files, projects, and test enginewith self-assessment exam