Access Forms & Reports For Dummies [Paperback]

Brian Underdahl (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0764599658 | ISBN-13: 978-0764599651 | Edition: 1

Create queries that make forms and reports useful

Develop forms to access the data you need and make reports that make sense!

If you thought you had to use a spreadsheet program to produce reports and forms, guess what! Access can turn out great-looking forms and reports that actually show what's going on with your data -- if you know how to ask it nicely. This hands-on guide helps you do just that, and it works with all versions of Access.

Discover how to
* Ask Access the right questions
* Work with sets of data
* Create simple forms with a wizard
* Use queries to create new tables
* Troubleshoot queries
* Add visual features to reports

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Create queries that make forms and reports useful

Develop forms to access the data you need and make reports that make sense!

If you thought you had to use a spreadsheet program to produce reports and forms, guess what! Access can turn out great-looking forms and reports that actually show what's going on with your data — if you know how to ask it nicely. This hands-on guide helps you do just that, and it works with all versions of Access.

Discover how to

• Ask Access the right questions
• Work with sets of data
• Create simple forms with a wizard
• Use queries to create new tables
• Troubleshoot queries
• Add visual features to reports

About the Author

Brian Underdahl is the well-known, best selling author of over 70 computer books on a broad range of subjects. He has appeared on a number of TV shows, including the Computer Chronicles, and several TechTV programs, and is the subject of an hour-long interview on the syndicated Computer Outlook radio program. One of his titles was recently recommended to viewers by Scott Gurvey, Bureau Chief, on the Nightly Business Report on PBS, and his books have won awards including an Award of Merit from the Northern California Technical Communications Competition and the Referenceware Excellence Award for best title in the Graphic Design and Multimedia category.
Brian has been involved in personal computers from their beginning and has a background in electrical engineering. His last “real” job was as a Senior Programmer/Analyst for a large company, where he worked hard to bring the power and freedom of PCs to the desktops.
Brian figures that it’s the author who should do the work so that readers can get their money’s worth. That’s why his books are different — he takes the time to explain what’s going on so that readers can understand the subjects easily.

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 1 edition (September 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764599658
• ISBN-13: 978-0764599651
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #545,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How not to be an Access dummy, April 9, 2006

By 

Kevin Michaelson (Bozeman, MT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Access Forms & Reports For Dummies (Paperback)

First, it is important to realize what this book is not. It is not a complete Access reference book. It will not teach you database theory and all aspects of data normalization. It does not cover advanced techniques such as VBA programming, the ADO object model or using the Windows API.

So what do you get from this book? A fantastic introduction to developing forms, reports and queries. In the tradition of the Dummies series, the author gently guides the novice towards building expertise in this narrow but all important aspect of Microsoft Access. With a conversational style, each step in creating a report, form or query is clearly explained. Also, the reasons for creating a report or form, and the differences between the two are presented. Although the title doesn't mention queries, because they are integral to producing reports and forms, several chapters deal with queries. Finally, two chapters discuss enhancing queries with SQL and troubleshooting those queries when things go wrong.

In summary, by spending a few days with the author, via this book, a beginning Access programmer can quickly become adept at designing forms and generating reports.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Makes Access Far More Useful, January 9, 2006

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Access Forms & Reports For Dummies (Paperback)

Access is, of course, a database program. Unlike many of the big database programs, it is closely integrated with a quite sophisticated front end package to enable the creation of easy to use input forms and quite good looking reports to take the data stored in the database and present it to the outside world in a clear and useful format.

A database is useless unless you have a way to put data into and take it out of the database. This book mostly covers the setting up of input forms and output reports. It obviously won't be your only Access book, because you'll need something to describe how to set up a database. So this is a specialty book, that does an excellent job of covering this important aspect.

Selecting data out of the database to then present is sometimes a problem. Most beginning books just use the Access QBE to produce the data. Often this is enough, but this book goes just a bit into SQL that allows you to do so much more. While this is not a book on SQL, this is a good start to give you enough information to know if this is a direction you need to go.

All in all, this is a very useful book to enable you to get more utility ot of an Access database.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Reference Book, too, October 17, 2005

By 

J. Kelly "GA Book Fan" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Access Forms & Reports For Dummies (Paperback)

I know how to use Access... sort of. I took this book and used it to update my knowledge of Access Forms & Reports. I just didn't realize how MUCH I was lacking in my understanding of what is available. This book is not only a great book for covering the basics (and advanced topics) for using Forms and Reports (templates and creating your own). It is ALSO a great reference book.

I have a lot of Brian Underdahl's books on my shelf. Most of them I use continually as reference - when I simply cannot remember (or find) how to do something with the software I use, I find myself STILL reaching for his books.

Great book - five stars. Mr. Underdahl's writing style is what I enjoy and when you find a technical writer that you enjoy, you sick with him/her. Check out his other books, "Flash MX Complete Reference" and "Create Your OWn DVDs" - I use these ALL the time.

J