These two words can help you determine whether a hanging copy of Word, Excel, Access, or Outlook is a bug in Office...or a problem with your own VBA code.

Let's pull back the curtain and see how VBA loads VBE COM add-ins via a series of registry calls.

We look at several types of circular references along with a handy tool that you can use to help identify circular references in your own code.

In this continuation of our Chinese restaurant-COM metaphor, we expand the example to illustrate the differences between early and late binding.

COM is sort of like a Chinese restaurant.

For a COM object to support late binding in VBA, it must implement the IDispatch interface. Let's explore IDispatch and its four methods.

All COM objects are required to support at least one interface: the IUnknown interface. In this short article, we explore the three methods of IUnknown.

There are three basic types of COM servers: in-process, local, and remote. What do they have in common? What are the differences? Let's explore.

The VBA developer's guide to automating Microsoft Office applications: early vs late binding; CreateObject vs GetObject; and tips on cleaning up after yourself.

The Absolute Minimum Every VBA Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Early and Late Binding in COM (No Excuses!)

One of the most important concepts in VBA is also one of the least understood. Let's shine a light on the Component Object Model.