At one point, VBA in Microsoft Word was my only available programming outlet. I was able, easily, to access DirectDraw and create a faux screen saver. DLL imports are available in VBA, so the entire win32 API is available (in addition to the normal Office automation stuff like sending email, modifying spreadsheets, etc)
Yeah, in a similar situation right now and I find the DLL thing is relatively unknown and incredibly powerful if used well. Recently this 'robotics' evangelist keeps trying to rope us into spending a few mil on his automation and I keep showing him up by automating the same stuff right out of Excel for little to nothing.
