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Editor's picks

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  Visual Studio 2010 Professional

  Software (Microsoft Software)
  

  Rating (12 reviews):

  (4.3/5)

  

  Awesome Tool, incredibly intuitive and packed with features

  I've done VBA programming for awhile and I decided to take the plunge into .NET programming, primarily with VB.net. I've had this for only a day but I am extremely impressed with the robust features and "on-the-fly" developing support tools this has. I mostly played in the Office 2010 add-in templates and it is impressive how much work it saves you. It has everything from the calling procedures, ribbon customizations, and deployment solutions all set up and ready to go. And that is only one small functionality for one purpose. I cannot wait to start dabbling in the database functionalities and other features this has to offer. 5/5 T. Nield - See all my reviews, November 16, 2011

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  Great Product

  This product has some great new improvements and seems to work fine. My only complaint is that Microsoft really socks it to you in terms of price. Apple provides its new Xcode 4 software good for programming on Macs, iPhones, and Ipads to non developers for less than 5 bucks. Free if you are a member of their developers group. 4/5 J. White - See all my reviews, March 14, 2011

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  Visual Studio 2010 Pro

  Visual Studio 2010 is an excellent product. I am using it for Visual Basic development. It makes programming easy and intuitive. 5/5 Kevin F. Kinion (Port Orange, FL USA) - See all my reviews, June 10, 2011

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  List Price: $589.95
  

  Unit Testing

  Microsoft Visual Studio Team Explorer 2010

  Windows Development

  Test Case Management

  Office and SharePoint Development

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  Visual Studio 2010 Professional Upgrade

  Software (Microsoft Software)
  

  Rating (7 reviews):

  (3.9/5)

  

  Excellent Upgrade For Visual Studio

  I installed the product on a Win 7 64 bit system and it works great. Anyone with prior Visual Studio experience will no doubt be very happy with it. 4/5 J. White - See all my reviews, December 13, 2010

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  VS2010

  VS is a great developmnet tool. This package also includes a basic msdn subscription.I use it together with xamarin - mono for android to write android applications in C#. An excellent combination. 5/5 Henrik - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Visual Studio 2010 Professional Upgrade (Software) VS is a great developmnet tool. This package also includes a basic msdn subscription.I use it together with xamarin - mono for android to write android applications in C#. An excellent combination. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you? , January 19, 2012

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  Works great - nice upgrade

  Visual Studio just keeps getting better with 2010 - even seems to load faster than my old 2005 model. Much cleaner navigation and work area. Installed very easily on Windows XP - no problems at all. 5/5 William L. Anfin Jr. "a.k.a. Walkin' Willie" (Rock Hill, SC) - See all my reviews, September 19, 2011

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  List Price: $549.00
  Price: $453.99
  You Save: $95.01 (17%)

  Work Item Tracking

  Customizable Development Experience

  Version Control

  Cloud Development

  Web Development

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• Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 - Standard Edition

  Software (Microsoft Software)
  

  Rating (1 reviews):

  (5.0/5)

  Shipped promptly, installed correctly, runs great!

  Shipped promptly, installed correctly, runs great!The seller provided an honest, thorough job of providing a known good software program. 5/5 William H. Roberts "electronics nut" (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews, January 30, 2010

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  Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN

  Software (Microsoft Software)
  

  Rating (3 reviews):

  (3.0/5)

  

  Save money and get what you paid for!

  This version is identical to the product purchased directly from Microsoft, I have no idea why the earlier reviewer suggested otherwise. You may want to plan for someone to be at home since the package will be shipped with signature required because of the value. 5/5 Codecrafter (Florida) - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN (DVD-ROM) This version is identical to the product purchased directly from Microsoft, I have no idea why the earlier reviewer suggested otherwise. You may want to plan for someone to be at home since the package will be shipped with signature required because of the value. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you? , January 4, 2011

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  Be careful what you get....

  Be careful when you buy this!!! I thought that I was getting a MSDN Professional Subscription with this product, but instead I got a MSDN Essentials subscription which means you don't get all of the benefits of the subscription that is advertised. (For example, you don't get the magazine subscription or the Education package and your software downloads are a lot LESS than what the Professional subscription offers) I'll keep the software because the tools are what I wanted, but be wary of the subscription. 2/5 Grodoz - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN (DVD-ROM) Be careful when you buy this!!! I thought that I was getting a MSDN Professional Subscription with this product, but instead I got a MSDN Essentials subscription which means you don't get all of the benefits of the subscription that is advertised. (For example, you don't get the magazine subscription or the Education package and your software downloads are a lot LESS than what the Professional subscription offers) I'll keep the software because the tools are what I wanted, but be wary of the subscription. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you? , September 28, 2010

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  What A Rip Off

  Microsoft raised the price and removed useful tools, such as Office. Too many confusing SKUs. Takes up to two weeks to activate, unless you pay hundreds of dollars more to buy direct from Microsoft. Combined with the fact that increasing amounts of the work I do are for non Microsoft platforms, they picked a really bad time to deliver me such a crummy deal. If it weren't for ASP.NET I could probably be done with them for good. They should definitely watch their virtual backs, the people writing the apps increasingly don't need to put up with this. 2/5 Eric Ruck "NearChaos" (Ellicott City, MD USA) - See all my reviews, December 2, 2010

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  List Price: $1,199.00
  

  Unit Testing

  Windows Development

  Test Case Management

  Microsoft Visual Studio Team Explorer 2010

  Office and SharePoint Development

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  Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition

  Software (Microsoft Software)
  

  Component Objects and Companion Products for Visual Basic guidebook

  Professional Features manual

  Language Reference manual

  Crystal Reports for Visual Basic User's Manual

  Programmer's Guide manual

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  Microsoft Visio Standard 2010

  Software (Microsoft Software)
  

  Rating (7 reviews):

  (4.1/5)

  

  Useful Upgrade But Expensive

  This has several useful upgrade features but its main downside is the price, and there is no upgrade alternative.PROS:1. It is now fully compatible with Office 2007-20102. Added features allows for improved graphics3. Some down-loadable features provide added scope.4. Ease of integration with Office 2007 and 2010.5. Can deliver somewhat compatible displays with PowerpointCONS1. Price2. There is a serious problem with certain bluetooth add-ins. When I first loaded it I had a Broadcom add-in and it caused crashes. I Googled the issue and found that you had to removed them totally. I could not remove the add-in since Visio denied access so I had to remove the software package. Then all worked well.3. It lacks the vibrant styles available in Powerpoint and Word. The designs are rather simplistic and some are confusing given the color sets. It takes some time to get used to them.As with most... 4/5 Dr. Terrence McGarty (Florham Park, NJ) - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Microsoft Visio Standard 2010 (DVD-ROM) This has several useful upgrade features but its main downside is the price, and there is no upgrade alternative.PROS:1. It is now fully compatible with Office 2007-20102. Added features allows for improved graphics3. Some down-loadable features provide added scope.4. Ease of integration with Office 2007 and 2010.5. Can deliver somewhat compatible displays with PowerpointCONS1. Price2. There is a serious problem with certain bluetooth add-ins. When I first loaded it I had a Broadcom add-in and it caused crashes. I Googled the issue and found that you had to removed them totally. I could not remove the add-in since Visio denied access so I had to remove the software package. Then all worked well.3. It lacks the vibrant styles available in Powerpoint and Word. The designs are rather simplistic and some are confusing given the color sets. It takes some time to get used to them.As with most... Read more Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you? , December 31, 2010

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  Needs more stencils!

  VISIO provides a method of drawing that I have not found in any other product, however this particular version has very few stencils and for the price I expected much more. My rating is low because of this. 3/5 Mark D. Hornbogen - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Microsoft Visio Standard 2010 (DVD-ROM) VISIO provides a method of drawing that I have not found in any other product, however this particular version has very few stencils and for the price I expected much more. My rating is low because of this. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you? , May 1, 2011

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  Normal Microsoft Product

  I had Visio 2000 and felt it was time to replace it for some of the new features. The product was delivered on time. The installation was smooth, there was absolutely no problem. The new Visio follows the same format as my Office 2010 products so learing it was intuitive. What else can you say, easy to buy on Amazon, good delivery and easy to use. 5/5 PL1 Pgrmr - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Microsoft Visio Standard 2010 (DVD-ROM) I had Visio 2000 and felt it was time to replace it for some of the new features. The product was delivered on time. The installation was smooth, there was absolutely no problem. The new Visio follows the same format as my Office 2010 products so learing it was intuitive. What else can you say, easy to buy on Amazon, good delivery and easy to use. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you? , August 25, 2011

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  List Price: $249.95
  

  Bring your diagrams to life with dynamic, data-driven visuals

  Visio 2010 Standard simplifies complexity with a diverse set of intuitive, professional diagramming tools

  Intuitive navigation with an updated user interface and Shapes window

  Share dynamic, data-linked diagrams with others through their browser

  Easier diagram creation with modern templates, and automatic alignment and spacing

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  Mastering Microsoft Visual Basic 2010

  Book (Sybex)
  

  Rating (7 reviews):

  (4.7/5)

  

  Great Technical Book - No Pictures No Long drawn out explanations

  I have not programmed since C+ in Visual Studio 6.0 back in College.This book has gotten me up to speed in no time. I read the first 300 pages in PDF then had to buy the book because there was just so much to do read then do and flipping back and fourth in the computer was becoming a pain, even with a 24inch monitor. Since then I have only done 1 chapter, due to my slacking and building a new machine to run the project I will be making.But this is a No Frills Book - Not diagrams, few charts, mostly words and examples that you can download off the net if needed. Another nice point is the Added chapters you can download for free from the website, along with the course projects. This book goes into more Depth then other books I was reading, I was looking at one .net 2010 book and by the end of that book you were on to chapter 2 in this book. Just the amount of information and the logical progression is Superb.This is not for your 24hr specials - this... 5/5 J. P. Arnone "JUAN VAN" (PA) - See all my reviews, February 28, 2011

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  slam dunk

  I bought this book without hesitation because I have his book of the same kind for VB.NET 2005. Brilliant guy, the 2005 book covered how to do many standard AND advanced things the best, modern way. This is a book for experienced programmers so I got it in addition to my recent purchase of a regular book on VB.NET 2010 that covers the fundamentals. He really knows how to target (i.e. topics, presentation and code examples) the experienced programmer who has to do some of it all. I still find his 2005 book useful even though I am using VS2010 ! This new book will give me big advantages. 5/5 jack - See all my reviews This review is from: Mastering Microsoft Visual Basic 2010 (Paperback) I bought this book without hesitation because I have his book of the same kind for VB.NET 2005. Brilliant guy, the 2005 book covered how to do many standard AND advanced things the best, modern way. This is a book for experienced programmers so I got it in addition to my recent purchase of a regular book on VB.NET 2010 that covers the fundamentals. He really knows how to target (i.e. topics, presentation and code examples) the experienced programmer who has to do some of it all. I still find his 2005 book useful even though I am using VS2010 ! This new book will give me big advantages. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you? , August 4, 2010

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  Great Resource

  Excellent coverage of .net. It was nice that the author's first 3 chapters are aimed at those with no .net experience; he states you can skip ahead if you are already familiar.Part 2 (Chapters 4-7) covers development, Part3 (8-10) custom classes and controls, Part4 (11-14) covers the .net framework, Parts 5 & 6 (15-21) data-driven programming and web.Good coverage of LINQ also.I am still working through the book but have learned a lot on the past month. would recommend based on current experience. 5/5 Sigma (ohio) - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Mastering Microsoft Visual Basic 2010 (Paperback) Excellent coverage of .net. It was nice that the author's first 3 chapters are aimed at those with no .net experience; he states you can skip ahead if you are already familiar.Part 2 (Chapters 4-7) covers development, Part3 (8-10) custom classes and controls, Part4 (11-14) covers the .net framework, Parts 5 & 6 (15-21) data-driven programming and web.Good coverage of LINQ also.I am still working through the book but have learned a lot on the past month. would recommend based on current experience. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you? , December 17, 2011

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  List Price: $59.99
  

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  Professional Visual Basic 2010 and .NET 4 (Wrox Programmer to Programmer)

  eBooks (Wrox)
  

  Rating (4 reviews):

  (3.2/5)

  

  Terrible book.. Authors are all over the place

  This could have been a good book -- unfortunately, with too many hands involved in it, it leaves the reader confused as you switch chapters and deal with each authors view of the subject at hand. This book was used as a textbook for a graduate advanced VB.NET class that I took. Code samples are an all or nothing ordeal -- you can either type everything in as you go along -- or use the code samples from the publisher's website. The downside to the code samples of the publisher is that they only include what the final end result should have been by the time you get to the end of the chapter. Allowing you to use some code samples as a starting point would have been helpful.The fact that it is authored by several people is maddening. Each author covers various topics, and each author utilizes a different style of presenting the material to you.. Creates a lot of confusion if you are learning as you go. 2/5 RickNY (Long Island, NY USA) - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Professional Visual Basic 2010 and .NET 4 (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback) This could have been a good book -- unfortunately, with too many hands involved in it, it leaves the reader confused as you switch chapters and deal with each authors view of the subject at hand. This book was used as a textbook for a graduate advanced VB.NET class that I took. Code samples are an all or nothing ordeal -- you can either type everything in as you go along -- or use the code samples from the publisher's website. The downside to the code samples of the publisher is that they only include what the final end result should have been by the time you get to the end of the chapter. Allowing you to use some code samples as a starting point would have been helpful.The fact that it is authored by several people is maddening. Each author covers various topics, and each author utilizes a different style of presenting the material to you.. Creates a lot of confusion if you are learning as you go. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you? , April 7, 2012

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  A Good (not-so-basic) Visual Basic Book

  I just got this book a week ago it is as another reviewer put it a great read if you have worked with Visual Basic before extensively.Most chapters provide a nice detail on how the functionality has changed from previous versions.In general I found a nice balance between simple examples and important details, but some of the chapters feel like they were going to bury you under one seemingly pointless nuanced exception to the previous example after another.Some chapters omit information on why you would select one approach over another. (One of the reasons why we buy books like this as programmers is to get that kind of advice, so the omission is irking when you notice it.)This isn't an introduction to programming book, if you aren't already a professional programmer I recommend starting with a different book. (That is to say simple concepts aren't focused on to any great extent, and you are assumed to be a programmer in a software... 4/5 Keith Thompson "Keith" (Aurora, CO United States) - See all my reviews, November 14, 2011

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  Verbose and NOT for Beginners

  This book was chosen by my Professor just before the start of class. Due to the fact that this is authored by a TEAM of writers, the verbiage tends to read like stereo instructions. There is a lot of nonsense before they get to the point. It would be an excellent book as reading material for those already working with .NET applications since every reference to code is preceded and followed and interrupted by how the .NET framework and VB USED to do things.As a beginning programmer I found it verbose, boring and far too in "yesterday" in theory & practice. They tout the ability to download the example code from the website and yet neglect to advise that if you do not have access to SQL SERVER you will have a devil of a time inserting their procedures into your project since their code files are compilation.If I were an experienced programmer in previous versions of VB and .NET, I would probably find this a great read to update my skills and understand the... 2/5 Scarlett Moon - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Professional Visual Basic 2010 and .NET 4 (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback) This book was chosen by my Professor just before the start of class. Due to the fact that this is authored by a TEAM of writers, the verbiage tends to read like stereo instructions. There is a lot of nonsense before they get to the point. It would be an excellent book as reading material for those already working with .NET applications since every reference to code is preceded and followed and interrupted by how the .NET framework and VB USED to do things.As a beginning programmer I found it verbose, boring and far too in "yesterday" in theory & practice. They tout the ability to download the example code from the website and yet neglect to advise that if you do not have access to SQL SERVER you will have a devil of a time inserting their procedures into your project since their code files are compilation.If I were an experienced programmer in previous versions of VB and .NET, I would probably find this a great read to update my skills and understand the... Read more Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you? , April 15, 2011

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  List Price: $59.99
  

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  Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN Renewal

  Software (Microsoft Software)
  

  Rating (2 reviews):

  (5.0/5)

  

  better value then buying straight from Microsoft

  I have had an MSDN subscription for many years now and I used to renew it every year through Microsoft directly. A few years ago I decided to check out Amazon to see if they sold it. Why yes they did! It's the exact same thing you get through Microsoft. And it was CHEAPER then renewing through Microsoft each year. And you know what? Money in my pocket is where it should stay :) Now every year when Microsoft calls me to renew, I proudly announce to them "Thank you, yes I will ... through Amazon!" You should too! 5/5 Linda Link "The Link Review" (Batlimore, MD United States) - See all my reviews, June 27, 2011

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  Good price for correctly licensed copy

  I have been renewing my MSDN membership for years now. I have tried some of the "impossibly" low priced renewals, and Microsoft had a hard time activating them as they sometimes were not really a valid license or were an academic license. I have used renewal licenses from Amazon for a few years now, and they generally seem to be the lowest price of the fully legit sources. If your a big company with mutliple MSDN licenses, you can get better voluem pricing. 5/5 Jan Bottorff (San Ramon, CA) - See all my reviews, September 8, 2011

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  List Price: $2,299.00
  Price: $1,349.00
  You Save: $950.00 (41%)

  Static Code Analysis

  Coded UI Test

  Database Deployment

  Unit Testing

  Code Metrics

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  Professional Excel Development: The Definitive Guide to Developing Applications Using Microsoft Excel, VBA, and .NET (2nd Edition)

  Book (Addison-Wesley Professional)
  

  Rating (16 reviews):

  (4.1/5)

  

  The Ultimate Power-User Book

  Every once in a while a technical book comes along which strikes the perfect balance between "technical detail", "practical application", and "vision". I am, like many people who buy self-help style technical books (as opposed to full out college textbooks), a self declared power-user. Power users are folks who need to get stuff down; not much time for parsing minute details and theoretical concepts. We look for ways to make our day-to-day business tasks more automated. If you're self employed like me, you're very business existence depends on automation.This book is special for 3 reasons:1) Practicality of advanced topics:As a power-user, when was the last time you found yourself seriously looking at c programming, ADO, and SQL? The authors give us real life uses for these sorts of things, in a very focused manner. You walk away with an excellent understanding of why and when to use these things (notice I didn't say thorough understanding. The authors... 5/5 Michael T. Ellis "m60462a" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews, March 25, 2010

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  Chapter 3 is worth the entire book for beginning VBA'ers

  I teach Excel and am a VBA developer. I laughed as I read chapter 3, titled "General Application Development Best Practices", because I found myself thinking, wow, if I had read this book 15 years ago I could have saved myself tons of grief! It is one of the BEST summaries of "good vba practices" that I've ever seen. For beginning developers, reading chapter 3 alone is worth the cost of the book. After developing for 15 years, I follow almost all of the practices that were covered in that chapter - and can't agree more with the importance of them. I haven't finished going through this book yet but my enthusiasm for the book wouldn't be diminished even if I hated the rest of it. 5/5 Cindy Kredo "ckredo" (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews This review is from: Professional Excel Development: The Definitive Guide to Developing Applications Using Microsoft Excel, VBA, and .NET (2nd Edition) (Paperback) I teach Excel and am a VBA developer. I laughed as I read chapter 3, titled "General Application Development Best Practices", because I found myself thinking, wow, if I had read this book 15 years ago I could have saved myself tons of grief! It is one of the BEST summaries of "good vba practices" that I've ever seen. For beginning developers, reading chapter 3 alone is worth the cost of the book. After developing for 15 years, I follow almost all of the practices that were covered in that chapter - and can't agree more with the importance of them. I haven't finished going through this book yet but my enthusiasm for the book wouldn't be diminished even if I hated the rest of it. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you? , May 19, 2010

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  Not "Fully updated for Excel 2007"

  The back of this book says that it is "Fully updated for Excel 2007". However, I have been disappointed to find that's not true.First, the section on Excel "dictator" apps does not go into the requirements for Excel 2007, except to mention that you'll need to look at the chapter on the ribbon. But that isn't why I'm writing this review.I wanted to position a form next to a worksheet cell, and on pages 400-402, they say that trying to do that using the cell's Top and Left properties is "extremely difficult", and then say that "Fortunately, there is an easier workaround, which is to use the window that Excel uses for editing embedded charts."Their workaround code uses Windows APIs. That's no problem, but it's interesting that with a solution apparently available that would probably work on both Windows and Mac (using the cell's Top and Left properties), they show only an easier solution that works only for Windows. No mention of Mac there... 2/5 Greg J. Lovern - See all my reviews, March 20, 2011

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  List Price: $59.99
  

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