Helen Feddema

Bio

Helen Feddema grew up in New York City. She was ready for computers when she was 12, but computers were not ready for her yet, so she got a B.S. in philosophy from Columbia and an M.T.S. in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School, while working at various office jobs. It was at HDS that she got her first computer, an Osborne, and soon computers were her primary interest. She started with word processing and spreadsheets, went on to learn dBASE, and did dBASE development for six years, part of this time as a corporate developer. After being laid off in a flurry of corporate downsizing, she started doing independent consulting and development, using dBASE, ObjectVision, WordPerfect and Paradox. Always looking for something new and better, Helen beta tested Access 1.0 and soon recognized that this was the database she had been looking for ever since Windows 3.0 was introduced. Since that time, she has worked as a developer of Microsoft Office applications, concentrating on Access, Word, and Outlook. Helen coauthored Inside Microsoft Access, (New Riders, 1992), and wrote two books for Pinnacle's "The Pros Talk Access" series, Power Forms and Power Reports (1994). She also coauthored Access How-Tos for the Waite Group Press (1995), and more recently contributed to The Microsoft Outlook Handbook (Osborne-McGraw-Hill), Que's Special Edition: Using Microsoft Outlook 97 (1997), Office Annoyances (O'Reilly, 1997), and Outlook Annoyances (O'Reilly, 1998). She also contributed chapters to Que's Special Edition: Using Microsoft Project 98 (1997) and Teach Yourself Project (1998). Most recently, Helen co-authored Sybex' MCSD: Access 95 Study Guide (1998). She has also been a regular contributor to Pinnacle's Smart Access and Office Developer journals, Woody's Underground Office newsletter, PC Magazine's Undocumented Office and the MS Office and VBA Journal. She recently contributed articles on Menu Manager and Outlook Automation Access add-ins and Access-Word data merging to Smart Access, as well as writing the Access Archon column for the Woody's Office Watch e-zine. Helen sometimes beta tests seven or eight products at once, mostly Microsoft, but with some from other vendors as well. She lives in the mid-Hudson area of New York state, with three cats and three computers. Helen maintains a web page with a large selection of code samples concentrating on connecting Access, Outlook, Word, and Excel. She is an MVP on the WOPR Lounge, a threaded discussion group devoted to Microsoft Office.