Saved from a previous post:
If you're able (not behind a firewall at work???), you may want to connect
directly to the MS newsservers.
If you have Outlook Express installed, try clicking on these links (or copy and
paste into MSIE).
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.excel.setup
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.excel.misc
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.excel.worksheet.functions
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.excel.newusers
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.excel.programming
(and a few more for MSWord)
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.docmanagement
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.word97vba
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.newusers
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.pagelayout
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.vba.addins
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.vba.beginners
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.vba.customization
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.vba.general
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.vba.userforms
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.word6-7macros
(You can always connect to more later)
Here are some links that explain it better:
Chip Pearson has some notes written by Leonard Meads at:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/DirectConnect.htm
David McRitchie's notes at:
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/xlnews.htm
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/oe6.htm
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/oe6nws01.htm
Tushar Mehta's notes at:
http://www.tushar-mehta.com/misc_tutorials/oe_ng/index.htm
And if you're looking for old posts:
Or you can use google (maybe a few hours behind) to search for stuff you've
posted (and find the replies, too)
http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search
http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=group:*Excel*&num=100
Ron de Bruin has an excel addin that you may like:
http://www.rondebruin.nl/Google.htm