Microsoft Office

Acknowledgments
I almost forgot to thank the following: Leandro Castillo (for unleashing Custom Lists), Pete Dozier (my
VBA Jedi Master), and Thomasina Campbell (who believed in me when I didn’t believe in me). Oh, and
thanks are due to Jennifer Irving, for her outstanding contributions to the field of font color management
(despite my suggestions to try colors other than pink, dark pink, and baby pink).
My undying gratitude goes out to John Leo, who taught me the four key elements of financial modeling in
Excel: Simplicity, flexibility, elegance, and (most importantly) Alt-Tab. Thank to Ike Gerardo, who sleeps
better at night after he realized that when you have the solution, it’s better to give than to receive. A big
thanks to Ray Lee, who pointed out that financial modeling has nothing to do with fashion (which certainly
opened the door to some new formulas). I’m equally grateful to Xcelion, who demonstrated that using the
SUM function is indeed more efficient than using a hand-held calculator and typing the result in a cell.
Who’d a thunk?
If I live to be 50, I’ll never forget Joan Perry, who walked from coast to coast in support of this book (and
no, I won’t reimburse her for the shoes). And I must acknowledge Malicious Earn, who will be buying this
book to see whether he actually got acknowledged. I am eternally grateful to TimS, who dutifully patrols
the bookstores, straightens up the Excel section, and then hides the non-Walkenbach Excel books in the
Stephen King section. And I must certainly acknowledge Woody, whom everyone expected would be the
last one to be acknowledged.
And finally, I really and truly thank the readers of the J-Walk Blog and the Daily Dose of Excel for helping
me write what is perhaps the longest Acknowledgments section in the nearly 200-year history of Wiley
Publishing.
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