McGimpsey & Associates

Google Search Mac 5.0 beta 1

Ron de Bruin's outstanding Google Search Add-in unfortunately doesn't run on Macs due to some windows API calls.

With his permission, I've rewritten the add-in to work on Mac XL (98/01/v.X). Unlike version 4.1, I did not include any Mac-specific code, so it should also work on Windows versions XL97 or newer. While it mostly follows the form and function of Ron's utility, I've taken a few liberties with the form itself and coding.

Downloads

Google Search Mac 5.sit

Google Search Mac 5.zip

Features

Explanations for most of the features can be found in Norman Harker's Help manual (which can be downloaded from Ron's page) for the Win version. There are some differences. Among them:

  1. The userform has multiple panes - Search, Preferences, and About.
  2. The user does not have direct access to the lists. Instead, the lists can be edited from the Preferences pane.
  3. The location and group/site chosen in the Search pane is automatically selected when the Preference pane is chosen. Likewise, if a location and group/site is chosen (or added) in the Preferences pane, it is automatically selected when returning to Search.
  4. Web Site and Favorites lists now both have a Name and URL field. The Name is displayed in the Search pane and in the listbox in the Preferences pane. The URL is displayed below the listbox in the Preferences pane.
  5. The MSKB list works similarly, with the product code displayed, rather than the URL.
  6. I reversed the order of the years in the From and To dates dropdowns so that more recent years appear first.

Screenshots

Google Search About Pane Screenshot Google Search Newsgroup Search Screenshot Google Search MSKB Search Screenshot
About
Search Groups
Search MSKB
Google Search Web Prefs Screenshot Google Search MSKB Prefs Screenshot
Prefs - Web
Prefs - MSKB
Prefs - Edit list

Known bugs/To Do's

  1. When editing the Favorites list, after adding or editing an item, the listbox displays the last location and group/site chosen in either the Search or Preferences pane.
  2. While the buttons look fine in XLv.X, they are squished in XL98/01. I'm considering a conditional compilation to scale the earlier version buttons.
  3. Text dropdowns in XLv.X sometimes change apparent font size (get really small).
  4. The VBA Help menu item is not available yet - I'm finding it's occasionally unstable in XLv.X, and am trying to track it down.
  5. Help right now just points to Ron's site. i have neither the ability or desire to rewrite Norman's treatise, so I'll probably end up pointing it to a short html help file to be included in the download.

Next Big Thing

I've eliminated a lot of the references to the worksheet, so the next thing to do is to put the lists in a preference file instead of a spreadsheet so that the add-in can be converted to use with Word, Powerpoint, etc.

This page last updated Monday, 29 September 2003

© Copyright 2001 - 2003 McGimpsey and Associates. Except where noted, all code on this site may be distributed under the Gnu GPL. Acknowledgement is appreciated.

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