One frequent need is to find the last used cell in a range (for example, to start a new record). One way is to use the End method, as follows:

Dim rNext As Range
With Sheets("Sheet1")
	If IsEmpty(.Range("A1").Value) Then
		Set rNext = .Range("A1")
	Else
		Set rNext = .Range("A" & .Range("A" & _
			.Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row).Offset(1, 0)
	End If
End With

The nested dots and parentheses are difficult to keep straight when translating to AppleScript. The following is the direct AppleScript translation:

tell application "Microsoft Excel"
	tell sheet "Sheet1" of active workbook
		if value of range "A1" = "" then
			set rNext to range "A1"
		else
			set rNext to get offset of range ("A" & ¬
				(first row index of (get end range ¬
				("A" & (count rows)) ¬
					direction toward the top))) ¬
					row offset 1
		end if
	end tell
end tell

It is preferable to use just a few ofs at a time, using intermediate variables along the way, at least until you become very familiar with constructions you run into regularly. You can use something like this:

set lastRowCellA to (get end range ¬
	("A" & (count rows)) direction toward the top)
	set lastRowNum to (first row index of lastRowCellA)
	set lastRowCellAA to range ("A" & lastRowNum)
	set rNext to get offset of lastRowCellAA row offset 1

In fact, by doing this clarifying extraction, you can see that there are some redundant and circular steps. Once you have lastRowCellA in the first line, you can do the get offset straight away without needing to get the row index and put that back into the address.

set lastRowCellA to (get end range ¬
	("A" & (count rows)) direction toward the top)
set rNext to get offset of lastRowCellA row offset 1

This does exactly the same thing. That's almost simple enough to take the variables out again. But breaking up the code and using self-commenting variable names, if it starts to get too complicated, is usually a good idea. It will help you see things more clearly. The Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code was in fact originally written to grab a larger range, not a single cell. In that case the extra steps are necessary.

Just remember to never set a variable to a (named) column, row, or cell — just to a range. It can be as simple as replacing the word column by range, using the A1-style address.