The ISTC
I have been a paid-up member of the ISTC (Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators) for a few years now, so I’m allowed to display this banner. Even more so that, as of November 2018, I’m now a Fellow of the ISTC.
They publish a magazine, called Communicator, and it’s issued quarterly to all ITSC Members and Fellows.
In the beginning
Back in 2015, I was asked by the features editor (Katherine Judge) of the magazine, if I’d like to contribute some articles on the basic steps to coding in Visual Basic for Applications. The series has grown and grown since then.
The articles start out using the standard ISTC template and then (happily) go through the wringer via Katherine, who has the hard job of making my work look so much better with her edits.
Articles available
The table below shows all of the articles that I’ve written for the magazine – so far. All are stored as standard PDF files as supplied by the magazine and include the relevant issue’s front cover.
My ISTC Articles
Article | Issue | What's covered | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Summer 2015 | A simple introduction to macro recording and the first steps towards VBA coding. | Website download | Dropbox download | GoogleDrive download |
2 | Autumn 2015 | The use of variables, their types and uses within VBA. | Website download | Dropbox download | GoogleDrive download |
3 | Winter 2015 | Basic condition testing using IF .. THEN .. ELSE and SELECT .. CASE. It shows how to code the appropriate reaction to the value of a variable: user-defined or Word's internal variables. | Website download | Dropbox download | GoogleDrive download |
4 | Spring 2016 | The various forms of loops available in VBA (Part 1). The fourth article covers just FOR .. NEXT loops. | Website download | Dropbox download | GoogleDrive download |
5 | Summer 2016 | The various forms of loops available in VBA (Part 2). This covered the other types of VBA loop. | Website download | Dropbox download | GoogleDrive download |
6 | Autumn 2016 | Creation of simple functions and subroutines. | Website download | Dropbox download | GoogleDrive download |
7 | Winter 2016 | The ways in which VBA can make changes to your document's content. | Website download | Dropbox download | GoogleDrive download |
8 | Spring 2017 | Code optimisation techniques | Website download | Dropbox download | GoogleDrive download |
9 | Summer 2017 | Word's Quick Access Toolbar | Website download | Dropbox download | GoogleDrive download |
10 | Winter 2017 | Creating user forms (Part 1) | Website download | Dropbox download | GoogleDrive download |
11 | Spring 2018 | Creating user forms (Part 2) | Website download | Dropbox download | GoogleDrive download |
12 | Summer 2018 | Creating user forms (Part 3) | Website download | Dropbox download | GoogleDrive download |
13a | Autumn 2018 | Creating user forms (Part 4) | Website download | Dropbox download | GoogleDrive download |
13b | Autumn 2018 | Macros: A brief history of time (saving) | Website download | Dropbox download | GoogleDrive download |
14 | Winter 2018 | Arrays, arrays and more arrays: part 1 | Website download | Dropbox download | GoogleDrive download |
15 | Spring 2019 | Arrays, arrays and more arrays: part 2 | Website download | Dropbox download | GoogleDrive download |
16 | Summer 2019 | Arrays, arrays and more arrays: part 3 (Shorter article due to magazine space) | Website download | Dropbox download | GoogleDrive download |
17 | Autumn 2019 | Arrays, arrays and more arrays: part 4 | Website download | Dropbox download | GoogleDrive download |
18 | Winter 2019 | At the VBA Crossroads - Which way now? | Website download | Dropbox download | GoogleDrive download |
Note: If you have a Dropbox or GoogleDrive account, then use the appropriate links above to copy / sync the articles with your appropriate cloud account. Or just use the normal website download links.