Access 2003 All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies (Paperback)

~ (Author), (Author), Alison Barrows (Author) "Access is the Microsoft database management program, part of the Microsoft Office suite of programs..." (more)
Key Phrases: new workgroup file, main menu form, choosing field types, Microsoft Office, Chart Wizard, Microsoft Access (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“…clear explanations in plain English, and a bit of fun and humour…” (WWB, January 2005)

Product Description

9 books in 1– one great price for nine handy guides

Your one-stop guide to building databases and managing information with Access 2003

Think of this book as the ultimate user-friendly Access companion, loaded with information thats simple to find. It will have you creating and using a database in no time, and the self-contained minibooks include information that works for Access 2000, 2002, and 2003. From storing, organizing, and sharing data to customizing databases with VBA, it gives you easy Access.

The Dummies Way

• Coverage of the essentials and beyond
• Explanations in plain English
• "Get in, get out" information
• Thumbtabs and other navigation aids
• Tear-out cheat sheet
• A dash of humor and fun

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Product Details

• Paperback: 840 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 1 edition (September 22, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764539884
• ISBN-13: 978-0764539886
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #35,349 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maybe it's For Dummies, But it's Got it All..., March 6, 2005

By	Jeffrey A. Smith "jasncompany" (Athens, AL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the best reference book for Access 2003. It has clear, concise examples and is organized well. Additionally, it has Visual Basic help, which is essential if you're writing modules, which almost any database application will require. In short, it's as basic as you want it to be, and will support advanced users as well. I really appreciate this book after going through some other publications and coming up empty.

60 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A brave attempt, January 4, 2005

By	Jan Strnad (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Keep in mind: I absolutely hate MS Access for being non-intuitive, dense, and frustrating for anyone but a programmer. Given that, the authors make a brave attempt to explain Access and their book has been enormously helpful to me. Still, certain basic concepts never quite get explicated as a 'dummy' would like. I still don't know how to put a picture on a form or to get fields to fill in 'automagically.' The book tells me it can be done, but it stops shorting of showing me exactly how. Getting precise instructions from this book is often like getting directions from a Vermont farmer who assumes that you know "where the old church used to be" or "where Joe's brother got struck by lightning." It often points me in the right direction without quite getting me where I want to go.

57 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Reference I Have Found, April 23, 2006

By	Kathryn L. Evans (Caroga Lake, New York United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I started a new job in the Information Reporting Office of a State Education Department. I am fluent in SPSS programming, but have had little experience with Access. My job turns out to entail retrieving many data files in an Access format from a master database stored in Oracle on a mainframe using ODBC. I have had to learn quickly how to manipulate those databases to obtain the information needed to put into files for Federal reporting purposes. I needed a comprehensive reference to Access that would allow me to learn how to use Access to perform data manipulations that are easy to perform with Statistical Analysis packages such as SPSS. For example, every School is assigned a 12-digit code, and each sequence of two or four digits embedded in the code has a distinct meaning, such as a reference to the county of location or type of school. So I had to learn quickly how to "parse" the long "string" field into new separate string fields made up of the component parts of the 12-digit string. I also needed to aggregate data on field values to obtain counts and sums. These are basic functions, easy to look up or find in the index when using a program like SPSS. These sorts of functions do have counterparts in Access, but the indexes of such books are geared to the business user and do not refer to such functions with the standard terms such as "parse," "string function," or "aggregate" that are familiar to people used to using statistical packages to manipulate data.
I looked at many older Access reference books in our office. I ordered the Alison Balter "Mastering Microsoft Office Access 2003" book from Amazon after reading the reviews. I was not able to find what I needed to learn from those books. Fortunately, I also ordered "Access 2003 All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies," from which I was able to figure out everything I needed to know. Once I knew what I needed to know, which in retrospect seem like simple functions, I went back to the other reference books to see how that information was presented and to figure out why I hadn't been able to find it. I still wasn't able to find some of these functions in the Balter book.
I wouldn't write a review panning the Balter book because it may be excellent for its intended audience, developers working on form and report interfaces for commercial clients. But if you need to quickly get up and running learning how to manipulate data with Access, but are not a total novice with programming, and need some fairly sophisticated information, the "All-In-One Dummies" book certainly was far superior to the others. It could be better, as noted in a review below, if the index would include words familiar to more sophisticated programmers using other programs, such as "parse, "aggregate," etc., but the table of contents was so detailed, and the examples in the book so detailed and clear, that I was able to quickly figure out where the information would be in the book if it were to be found anywhere.
For example, to find the "parsing function," I lookded under Book III: Queries (because I at least knew that "Queries" do most of the manipulations on data), Chapter 2: Letting Queries Do the Math, (Because functions are generally grouped and described in sections of books on doing math) and finally in the Section called "Manipulating Text with Expressions, Using the Access Text functions." Yes, a good index cross-referencing the words "parsing strings" and "text functions" would have been better, but I haven't found one reference book that has been that user-friendly to the experienced programmer who just isn't "experienced" using Access. At least the "Dummies" book is sufficiently well-organized, comprehensive and transparent to let me find out what I need to know!