My dad was a hacker before the term hacker was ever coined. Just about everything he has ever purchased or acquired has been taken apart, enhanced, gooped, or duct taped. Thanks, Dad, for showing me that just about anything can be improved (or broken).
A book is possible only with incredible effort from so many people. First, I would like to thank the people at O'Reilly, especially my editor Brian Jepson. I was lucky to have an editor who not only knows the technology but also is passionate about it. Brian did an incredible job throughout the entire process, and I greatly appreciate all of his great advice and hard work. I also want to thank John Osborn for working with me for more than a year to get this book out of the proposal phase and into actual writing.
I want to thank the following Microsofties for answering my emails and questions: Jim Blizzard, Mark Cliggett, Dan Fernandez, Sara Ford, Catherine Heller, James Lau, Adam Nathan, Scott Nonnenberg, Andy Pennell, Harry Pierson, Jason Salas, and Scott Swanson.
I would especially like to thank Josh Ledgard who helped me all the way from the proposal stage to being one of the technical reviewers for this book. I wish everyone at Microsoft had the same community passion that he does.
I want to thank all of my contributors and technical reviewers; they all went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that this book was the best it could be. Ben Von Handorf, Dave Donaldson, and Jamie Cansdale all pulled double duty and were both contributors and technical reviewers. All three of these gentlemen contributed greatly to this book and deserve many thanks.
I also want to thank all the add-in and macro authors who gave me permission to talk about their add-ins or include their macros in this book. I hope they enjoy seeing their work in print.
I want to thank my mom for reading through an entire chapter of something she didn't understand just so she could remind me what correct grammar is (and take out all my commas).
Most of all, I want to thank my beautiful wife Tammy for her support during all the late nights and long weekends it took to write this book.