30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
With a little study and committment, August 25, 2004
This review is from: Access 2002 VBA Handbook (Paperback)
I started using Access a few years ago as an adjunct of Microsoft Office, creating simple databases for my Christmas card list and such. Then about a year ago, because of work, I had the opportunity to dig deeper. Where to start? I began with Alison Balter's Mastering Access 2002 Desktop Development, a frustrating and disorganised tome that seemed to be missing all of the secret handshakes, signals and knowledge I longed for to unlock the supposed power of Microsoft Access. Every time it appeared Ms. Balter was going to get to the actual point and impart the wisdom I was seeking...she swiftly moved on to another topic. The book didn't even serve to help me clarify the mind-boggling vocabulary necessary to describe and understand the application. To me, Ms. Balter seemed like somebody whom, if they possessed a lot of knowledge, wasn't giving any of it away. A job change took care of my deadline but I was still intrigued and inherited a larger project when I committed myself to writing a custom database application for my partner's administrative needs. I needed help and serious instruction to achieve the application designs I had in my head.
I turned to Getz, Litwin & Baron's Access Cookbook (1st edition), thinking I could hi-jack some off the shelf solutions and, if not actually learn to write Access VBA, at least tweak the code they supplied to suit my starry-eyed custom application needs. Not a bad idea. Problem was, as intriguing as the book is, it's really for experienced developers looking to take their skills in another direction (skyward). Very strong on methodology too, which is important, but it wasn't exactly getting me off the launch pad (it wasn't even getting me off my mouse pad, to be more accurate).
Seven months on, two books later and still no real understanding of Access VBA. I checked out Getz, Litwin & Gunderloy's Access 2002 Developer's Handbook Set and was ready to dig deep...but one really needs to know the basics and fundamentals of Access VBA to keep up (otherwise it's like reading a foreign language of which you have very little knowledge). One hundred pages in and I sensed that I had skipped a grade and it wasn't going to get any easier. Even Ken Getz & Co. were repeatedly pointing me toward Novalis & Jones' Access 2002 VBA Handbook (useful for 2003 as well) and I can honestly say, after a few months procrastinating and about 2.5 - 3 weeks of focused study, without any previous programming knowledge or experience, I can now read an Access VBA procedure and understand what is actually going on. It's like I'm speaking their language!
Novalis and Jones are thorough and precise to a fault. Despite the repetitive vocabulary of Access application development, they do a stunning job of continually moving the reader along, down what is, it has to be said, a very tricky and treacherous path. ("Each AccessObject object has an AccessObjectProperties collection object, sometimes just referred to as Properties, a collection object that stores custom properties for the object. Each AccessObjectProperty in the AccessObjectProperties collection object itself has two properties: Name and Value." Don't worry, by the time you get to Chapter 13, from whence that comes, it'll just make you chuckle instead of sweat.) If you've ever tried to learn Access VBA and have been left scratching your head wondering what some author's glib explanation is supposed to actually mean, you won't be disappointed in this book. Novalis and Jones will not leave you behind.
The experience of reading the book is like one of taking a university course called Access VBA 101. You have to concentrate and focus while you do your reading. There are procedures aplenty throughout the book with step-by-step demonstrations and explanations about how to write Access VBA. The book is very well structured with regular variation between activity and explanation. (You will be inclined to start writing customisations and applying your newfound knowledge to the code samples as the book continues.) All of the samples are immediately applicable to the kind of useful procedures you'll want to include in your custom database application--in very simple form. This book is about foundations, however, it is an end in itself because you could finish it and start writing your own procedures. I have 12 different sections specifically earmarked for functionality that I want to include in my application, which is pretty useful. Their section on Creating and Modifying Database Objects (Chapter 14) has given me plenty of ideas about coding tools I want to write to flesh out the VBA IDE and write my code faster. Did I mention that 3 weeks ago I couldn't even read Access VBA?
If at times the book feels like it's hard going, it probably has more to do with the subject itself (maybe I should've taken a few more breaks). You will hit a few walls but everything is surmountable; I made it all the way through the book (save the DAO Appendix) and all of their code worked for me (be careful in Chapter 13 "Working with Groups of Records...", however, because a couple of their early procedures in the chapter will break some of the later ones). Not a quick start and at least a month or so of Sundays but for those looking to lay a solid foundation in Access VBA, this is a wise investment of time and money. I now feel that I know the depth and power of Access using VBA programming and when you're trying to learn and utilise something this complex, that's half the battle.
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20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
There are better books available, November 19, 2003
This review is from: Access 2002 VBA Handbook (Paperback)
I upgraded from Access 2000 to Access 2002 and wanted a 2002 reference so based on reviews from other sites I bought this book. I have turned to it time and time again only to be disappointed time and time again. I haven't learned really anything from this book and judge the $60 I spent for it a total waste of money. A MUCH better book is the Access 2002 Developer's Hanbook by Paul Litwin etc.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Can't use it enough!, September 6, 2006
This review is from: Access 2002 VBA Handbook (Paperback)
This book has been all that I hoped it would be. I use it as a tutorial one day and a reference the next. I was a beginner Access VBA developer and now with this book I have become much more comfortable around VBA. So much more comfortable that I have developed 4 financial Access applications that are going to be used by multiple departments. I recently picked up the Access 2002 Developer's Handbook Set which is a little more advanced but I keep coming back to this one.
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