One aspect that no one has mentioned is that even though you have the idea in your head of what you want to do, by the time it is done it will be very different from what you currently imagine.

The only recent development I've been involved with wasn't really software, well, I guess it was after a fashion: it was a very complex sales entry form for a radio station. I had lots of help from Paul Grzelak, and also some help with VB macros from a bbs member whose name escapes me now... Alvin something or other I think. Anyway, when I say complex, I mean like this:

=IF(NOT(ISERROR(SEARCH("FLEX[",X18))),VALUE(MID(X18,SEARCH("FLEX[",X18)+5,SEARCH("]",X18)-(SEARCH("FLEX[",X18)+5))), IF(AH18>1,(ROUNDUP((INT((F18-B18+1)/7)*(AH18-1)/AH18),0)*(Q18+R18+S18+T18+U18+V18+W18)) + D117,(ROUNDUP(INT((F18-B18+1)/7),0)*(Q18+R18+S18+T18+U18+V18+W18)) + D117))

The point being, in the process of developing this spreadsheet, we kept discovering better things to do and better ways to do them. We'd look at something and say "Wouldn't it be neat if..." and sure enough it would become a must-do improvement. Someone who today looked at the final result and had ten minutes explanation of what it did could sit down and duplicate the functionality of it in a couple of days, maybe less. In our case, from the first workable prototype to the final magnificent form was about a three year odyssey. In appearance the prototype and the final version weren't that different, just a matter of refinement. But in power and functionality it was like comparing a Schwinn to a Harley Davidson.

As you work on the project, you will constantly come up with ideas to make it look better, work better, and increase functionality, until eventually you have to draw a line in the sand and say "This is it! No more!"

Be prepared to spend a lot of time getting to that line.

tanstaafl.