Well as I see it, the real problem is that the Excel/Word/etc/etc object model is quite complex. Lots of objects, methods and properties to sling around. To my experience there are no shortcuts but to understand that model.

That isn't easily done of course, and you have to start somewhere and the tools you mentioned are the maps into this exciting world.

You will start the baby-talk, that is translate macros to Perl and get things done. Often you'll do this mechanically and perhaps not really understand what's going on. However as your path goes on, more problems to solve, you will gain more experience and at some time you will begin to "understand" the thinking behind the model and you will start to know where to look for methods and properties in this vast object forrest, you will see the light.

Now this is when the fun starts and the power is under your fingertips.

You asked for more information, there is one document in the Tutorials section, namely Brother cacharbe's famous Excel, Using Win32::OLE and Excel - Tips and Tricks, node that I recommend you to read and ponder.

HTH