Customer Reviews

Access VBA Programming

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The 1st half gives you a quick and sparce overview of what you can do without VBA. It spends lots of time interducing the reader to database design, queries, forms, and tables. If you have any idea what any of these are, you will get nothing out of the 1st half of the book.

The 2nd half introduces the reader to not just VBA but primarily to the concept of programming. I would say it is about 40% general programming (procedures, variables, scope, etc.), 30% idle banter, 20% useless graphics, and 10% Access specific code.

If you have any programming experience, you'll be wasting your time searching for the hidden nuggets in this book. If you are new to Access and to programming, this book is a good into.

My programming skills are minor and predate Windows as the main operating system in use. I know a few basic principles but have never been a "programmer". This book will not make me one but it goes a long way towards giving me the skills to reacquire some basic competency.

The text sets out some basic ideas about data structures and ways to manipulate them. These are general principles and have little to do with programming Microsoft Access but they are needed skills. Then the real lessons begin as the principles are used to learn how to manipulate Access objects and the Access environment. It is done is a thoughtful and logical manner which makes sense and which is easy to understand. It is a good introduction.

The code examples a fairly easy to follow and do a good job of making their points even when they are only read instead of tried. Actually trying the examples makes the learning process more complete. If I had one major gripe about this book it is that it did not ship with a disc. The examples are available by download over the net but are not included in the purchase. This make work fine for some but I got started in out of the way motel rooms without highspeed access. I would have rather paid a few dollars more and gotten what I need.

Still, as I said before, it is a good introduction.

Breadth of coverage was great, but I felt it lacked enough good lengthier program examples. A case study (small application example) or 2 would have been nice. Book is terse and well-written and organized.