Using Python to program MS Office macros?

Yes, absolutely. You want to use win32com module, which is part of pywin32 (get it here).

I've found you can really simplify Python integration by writing a macro in VBA for Python to use, and then just have Python call the macro. It will look something like this:

from win32com.client import Dispatch as comDispatchxl = comDispatch('Excel.Application')xl.Workbooks.Open("Macros.xls", False, True)xl.Run("Macros.xls!Macro_1")

I'm sure there are plently of examples on SO... Like this one.

There is a set of cross platform Python utilities - called xlrd, xlwt, and xlutils - for reading & writing Excel files. There are some limitations (e.g. I don't think they can process macros), but they do allow you to work with Excel files on non-Windows platforms, if that's of use to you. See: http://www.python-excel.org/

Also, there are SO questions already dealing with this sort of topic, including this: Is there a better way (besides COM) to remote-control Excel?

Or have a look at IronPython. IPy is a native .NET implementation of Python 2.6, you can find it at http://www.codeplex.com/ironpython.

We have used it for several projects. You can use it "from the outside" using COM or - as we do - write a Excel AddIn with a ScriptHost, which calls out to IronPython code giving you an environment similar to VBA.

Being a .NET dll, IPy integrates extremely well into the modern Windows .NET stack.