Customer Reviews

Access 2003 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

The All-in-One Desk References are such a cool line of books. I like how they are broken down into minibooks so that I can use the book to learn about areas where I am still a "beginner", but also learn tasks in areas where I'm not such a newbie too. The minibooks in this one are: Introduction and Database Design, tables, queires, forms, reports, macros, database admin. programming with VBA, and using Access with the Web. You won't be disappointed!

I am pretty good with computers and figuring out new software. This book had decent basic explanations of the functions & tools, but I had to review the book several times to figure out how to link Tables, and I still couldn't figure it out. I looked on Microsoft.com/Access at their Access database Templates to see how tables are linked together (see the Contact Management Database - its fantastic !) and had to look at each individual table & form to figure out how tables relate to each other in order for them to be linked... and I still couldn't quite figure it out.

The disappointing part about the book is that in order for ACCESS to really work for you, you need to understand how to link tables and the book was just not that helpful in that area.

I'm glad I have the book, however, it does help with many other basic things, but I would imagine you'd have to get someone to sit down and show you how to link tables in order for you to grasp the concept of it. To me, its like 3-dimensional thinking - and that's a bit too mind numbing for me to figure out on my own.

I am a complete dummy when it comes to Access. I have had very frustrating experiences trying to use Access in the past. I am now using the guide to design and develop a relational database. It's written in simple language and goes through everything in a reasonable order, with the more advanced programming-related chapters at the end. I have a feeling this book will become my best friend as I work through this project.

Nine minibooks in one big reference book. It covers everything I want to know: basic concepts, tables, queries, forms, reports, macros, database administration, Access on the Web (such as using Access on a home or small-business network), and even VBA programming. At $29.99, it is a great bargain for such a great reference book!

I found myself suddenly needing to use Access for analysis that was way too big to do in Excel (comparing data sets from 3 sources with ~800K records each). I really knew nothing about Access. Between this book and the internet I have become very proficient in Access. I practically slept with the book for a week. I now find I don't need it and have lent it to a co-worker.

I've had limited exposure to Access before reading this book, and I found it fantastic for filling in the blanks in my knowledge. Access is complicated enough that, for true beginners, it would probably be more helpful to get a book that comes with a CD of examples and walk-throughs. But if you have a handle on the basics, I'd highly recommend this book.

I am not an Access "guru" but have an immediate need for some intensive training. I've used Microsoft's on-line tutorials but need something closer at hand for reference. This book contains a huge amount of information for a person who is not very conversant in MS Access, and it has already been worth its cost. The information seems to be well organized and is presented in a way I can understand. I would recommend this book to someone else who has a bit of technical savvy and a need for a crash course in MS Access. I anticipate using this book frequently over the next few months.