Customer Reviews

Access 2000 For Windows For Dummies

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This book is getting a bum rap in these reviews.

Access is similar to Photoshop in a way. It's easy to learn the basics, but takes many hours of hard work and study to master.

This book is intended to get you through the basics, and it does an excellent job of it. The author gives explanations of the interface and the basic functionality which are easy to follow, without being superficial. I'm surprised that this book is getting such poor reviews while "Access 2000 for Busy People" is getting 5-star raves, since that book is superficial and devoid of real instruction, while this one actually tells you what you need to get started.

No, it doesn't give you code samples and a Northwind-style project to work on, but I recommend that you simply create your own app, or functions, as you go. I've been programming a long time (35 years) and in my experience, creating your own app is more useful than the paint-by-numbers, type-what-the-author-just-typed approach. The more you use your mind to work out your own functions, the more you really learn.

Ths style issue is a matter of taste. I've had enough dry, dessicated codebooks, thank you, and the humor in this book is a nice change of pace. Your mileage may vary.

My opinion is based only on shopping for Access 2000 books in a bookstore. I found the cute little jokes annoying, and the text has a lot of fluff. I like a concise book (I bought Access 2000 for Windows Visual Quickstart Guide by Deborah and Eric Ray) so I can find what I need quickly.

Still, as I browsed the table of contents, and read thru one of the sections of interest, the information was there. It just took too long to wade thru the fluff to get what I wanted.

I agree with the other review about too much fluff and not enough detail. The authors approach of "I am just another dummy stuggling to learn Access 2000 so we're in this together" gets real old...real quick. There are no actual examples that you work through. He wants you to set up your own database and follow his poor instructions. Book jumps all around and his filled with to much antedotal BS. Your better off with Microsofts tech manual in my humble opinion.

I'll make this as brief and painless as possible...

Up until three days ago I had never seen or used a database program of any kind, ever. I played around with Access for 3 or 4 hours and then bought this book, hoping it would answer some of my questions. Unfortunately, I have discovered a sum total of one - just one - tiny new thing from reading this book. In other words, in 3 or 4 hours playing around, I learnt more than this book could teach me.

Typically, Kaufeld will skim the surface of a topic and move on, leaving the details you need to do anything useful unmentioned. For example, his treatment of relationships is very light. In other cases the features are not even mentioned at all: joins, a rather important aspect, is completely ignored.

The book does however have the traditional redeeming features of a "For Dummies" book - you could probably get MS Access running even if you don't know anything at all about computers (I seem to remember Kaufeld mentioning a power switch somewhere...), and he does an adequate job of explaining what a table, form, query and report are.

In short, if all you want to do is use databases created by others, and you have no one around to teach you, this book will suffice - and probably suffice well. But if you ever want to create anything more than the "Hello World" of databases, you need a more complete, more technical book.

...My user level: beginner to intermediate (I already know how to build basic tables, forms, queries, trying to step up into the world of more complex relationships, reports, etc). I was pretty disappointed with this book: cut out the "for dummies" fluff and what's left are simple instructions on how to use the built in wizards. When I looked for example, for information on form controls in the index, I found they weren't even referenced. The front cover "cheat sheet" is just a listing of telephone and online tech support phone numbers (which you will end up shelling out $$ to call) and web addresses.

Kaufeld spends way too much time trying to make jokiness look like friendly instruction. Then, in place of real instruction, he constantly tells users to go get help from their company tech guy/gal. Wait a minute - I thought I bought this book so I could learn on my own! Apparently, he didn't envision Access users who work outside of a large corporation with an IT department.

I am completely new to Access 2000 and this book was just what I needed. It was both a good read (yes, I read it cover to cover) and informative. I had tryed other, more advanced Access books, but discovered that I was not yet at a level to fully understand them. I needed the basic level that "... For Dummies" books provide. Although the author covers how to use the Wizards, which are for the most part self-explanitory, he also delves into how to do everything from tables to queries to reports in design view. I'm a do-it-myselfer, so I prefer design view, but needed a book that would step me though the process. It is well organized and I plan on buying Access 2002 (XP) for Windows for Dummies when it hits the shelves so I can get a consise look at the new features and how to use them. If you're a Douglas Adams fan (especially Hitch hiker's Guide to the Galaxy), you'll like the title of Part III and the quips that are spattered throughout that section. Happy reading and good luck learning your way through a new program!

Up until now, I had never felt like a dummy for buying a "-for dummies" book. Up until now. Among the insipid and mildly insulting jokes I found just enough in this book to figure out what I already knew or could develop on my own using Access' own wizard. The chapters aren't especially helpful; for example, the section on creating forms leaves so much unexplored in this lovely database. In this book, if you come up against an interesting problem, well, you're supposed to find your company's IT nerd and beg. Perhaps that's it: if I make enough to buy the book, reward me as I have rewarded you, Kaufeld. There is a difference between being a dummy and being an innocent. Ah, well, fortunately, I discovered Anderson's "Complete Access Reference" the next week and got a great used copy on Amazon....

I wish I had read these reviews before I bought this book, I would have taken a closer look at it first. I have used these books as a quick reference in the past and I rely on them to be basic and to the point. I guess it's supposed to be conversational, but wading through all of the cutesy garbage filler and words like 'kinda' and 'yup' drove me crazy. Chapter titles like 'Lions AND Bears OR Tigers? Oh, My!' are useless, especially to someone like me who is new to the software. I just hope I'm able to return it in exchange for a book that doesn't add aggravation to the frustration of learning new software.

This book will give you boring definitions, but it doesn't really go into anything why I needed to learn how to do. There are way to many "Ask someone who is computer literate to help you with this." There was one explanation that said the topic is too difficult to explain and I should trade some "homemade cookies" to someone that will show me how to fix the problem. I'm not kidding look it up for yourself if you don't believe me. I don't know what audience this book is for but it seems to me that it was written for computer illerate people that will not get any answers anyway. Its more like "This stuff is too tough for you to learn, tell you what go have a cookie." I like to tell the author to go do something else...

Not having any database experience I thought that this book would be a good starting point. I soon realized that I was badly mistaken. The author skims material without giving any significant details. Anytime you think you may have found what you're looking for the author says to check out the Access Bible or to click on 'help'. This 355 page book would only be about 250 without all the terrible jokes and large subheadings. If you really want to understand Access, this book isn't for you. You will learn more from experimenting on your own and using the MS help.