Customer Reviews

Microsoft® Office Access(TM) 2007 Inside Out (Inside Out (Microsoft))

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is valuable to the beginnner and the expert developer. If you're a beginner, it presents ACCESS 2007 in a step-by-step manner so that you can quickly be using the software. If you've used previous versions of ACCESS, this book identifies the differences (some are improvements, some are still waiting to be "characterized" in my mind < grin >) between the previous versions and this new version; as a developer, this was very useful for me to quickly learn of what's new and how it's new.

Lots of sample databases...and code...and tips/tricks... and a PDF version of the book with extra chapters on the accompanying CD.

The style is similar to those in John's previous books, so you'll like this one if you've read the earlier ones. Definitely worth the money...the first time you need to learn "how do I do this?", it'll pay for itself in the time it would take you to learn "by trial and error".

If your looking for a comprehensive training guide, this is your book! I have had no experience with access before this book, but I was asked to do a project in access, and this book brought me from being utterly confused to having a very solid knowledge of the program. I update this review as I progress through the book. I am now roughly 1000 pages into the book, and I have not been disappointed yet, very easy to read, and very hands on, the quality is consistent as you go on through the chapters, it's very rare to find a spelling error or reference error(although there are a few.)

I am a Super Moderator on an Access forum and I see questions about Access and Access 2007 all of the time. This book is a fantastic resource for someone wanting to find out about Access 2007 and how to use it. However, it is more than that! There are excellent reference materials within the book that would make it a "keeper" for anyone working with Microsoft Access, regardless of version.

There are plenty of examples and screenshots, making it one of the easier reference books on Access to understand.

I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting a better "Access" experience.

Access 2007 introduces a significantly steeper learning curve that the previous two versions, with a raft of complex GUI changes and a radically ramped navigation system. This is an excellent book to get familiar with these new features, and the additional CD ROM provides a superb resource with a substantial amount of extra material not in the book itself.

I would like to have seen fewer chapters on subjects such as introducing VBA (reiterating conditional loops - excuse the pun - really isn't necessary anymore), and a little more on good database design conventions and ways to tackle medium to large-sized projects. Having said that, it's well pitched to cover the questions from the majority of its audience.

I've grown to be quite fond of the Microsoft Publishing line of titles, in that the quality of the content is very consistent and I've yet to find a single technical error. The "Please Buy Microsoft" subliminal messages are not as chokingly omnipresent in recent editions either. Overall, this is a great way to spend $30 and feel somewhat grounded after a couple of days work.

I bought this book because of the excellent section by the same authors in "2007 Microsoft Office System - Inside Out". However I was disappointed in the book because at least 30-40% of the book is taken up by exercises rather than didactic instruction. It would take one year to work through this book if you indeed worked all the examples. I would much rather see them put practical exercises in a separate section at the end of each chapter or on the CD.
Instead the authors have left out some important components such as database design, normalization, and naming conventions and relegated them to the CD if covered at all.
There is a lot of good information in the book but it is sometimes difficult to find.

I got my copy 3 days ago (a month before the order said it would be here <smile>) and can't put it down! Already, I am nearly 1/3 of the way through ...and that is saying a LOT considering it is one of the biggest books I have in my collection.

The flow is great and the material is presented in a logical order. This book is very easy to read and understand, and is *extremely* thorough! I really like the way that John and Jeff introduce and use terminology -- everything is correct and the definitions are accurate.

There are lots of tips and tricks and good examples. The book guides you to a very complete understanding of Access as well as how it interfaces with other applications.

I highly recommend 'Microsoft Office Access(TM) 2007 Inside Out', by John Viescas and Jeff Conrad, to anyone who is using or plans to use Access 2007.

-- Crystal
Microsoft Access MVP 2007

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have an awesome day :)
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I opened to Queries, immediately I was able to use what I read in a short time to my work. It's well organized, you can go directly to the chapter of the subject you need to know about. If you don't create tables or databases but just need how to query, you can go directly to that. It's probably the most comprehensive book on Access 2007 out there. I highly recommend.

John and Jeff have done an extremely thorogh job of covering Access from top to bottom. Everything you need to know in order to be successful with Access 2007 is contained within this valuable tome. Thanks to you both for completing this monumental effort for the Access community!

Zac Woodall
Program Manager
Microsoft Access

This book took me from an absolute novice to a minimally competent access programmer in a week.

It is a well-prepared manual, and in conjunction with training materials and forums available from Microsoft online I'm not too worried about being able to do everything I want with my database!

The book has an excellent Visual Basic primer and serves as a good reference, but didn't offer the same when it came to SQL.
The training databases have served me well, in that I have been able to peek below the sheets to see what's going on and how they did it... which is helpful when my project doesn't parallel what the book talks about.
I haven't really found the CD useful yet, other than the fact that it contains the training databases.

This book is BY FAR the most PRACTICAL, USEFUL, and WORTH-THE-EXPENSE computer related publication I have EVER BOUGHT.
I'm already decent with Excel, but when I make my next complicated spreadsheet I see another Inside-Out purchase in my future!!!

Inside Out is a good guide to using Access 2007. It takes some effort to find the section that will tell you how to do what you're trying to do, and it's a bit frustrating to have to go to the CD for more help, but all in all, definitely a useful tool. I found this guide more helpful than "How to Do Everything in Access 2007."