The objects, methods, and properties are thoroughly documented in the Excel VBA help file. It is not installed in a default installation of Office, so you may (or may not) already have it installed. You'll want to at least familiarize yourself with Excel's object model (Application->Workbooks->Worksheets->Range->...) Also, look at the OLE Browser included with AS Perl.

As far as Perl documentation of OLE, ActivePerl-WinFAQ12.html should be available locally - if not, it's on the Active State website. perldoc Win32::OLE provides some useful information, too.

As far as converting VB syntax in the help file to perl, the basic rules are:

• Methods (as defined in the helpfile) are called just like your example, (e.g., Workbooks->Add()).
• Properties (again, as defined by MS) are accessed with curly brackets:
  $sheets[0]->{Name}
  
• For named constants, use an anonymous hash or hashref:
  $xls->ActiveChart->Location({ Where => xlLocationAsObject, Name =>'Sheet1'});
  

The first thing I do usually is record a macro that does the basics of what I want. Then, I use Win32::OLE::Const 'Microsoft Excel'; to import all Excel constants, so I can copy examples from the from macro I've recorded (or from the helpfile) without looking up the values of the constants. Then I can translate until it all works like I expect it.

All in all, controlling Excel is quirky at best, and ugly at its worst. I have some notes I've taken, but they aren't formatted in any useful way. If you want to see them, let me know.

Hope all this helps in some small way...