Customer Reviews

Microsoft Access 2002 Bible Gold Edition

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The authors, editor(s) and publisher(s) should be ashamed of themselves.

They have managed to create a 1500 page book that is equally useless for beginners (including total newbies), intertmediate and advanced users.

Beginners: You'll pick up alot more just playing around with Access and reading the built-in or online help. (even if you have never used a database before).

Intermediate-Advanced users: You'll never find an answer to any of your questions.

I own over 30 computer books, both of a scientific and how-to nature. I have a degree in computer science. In other words, I am not new to computer books. This one though is simply horrible (I'd even say the worst I've ever read, and I've read "Computer Systems Design And Architecture" by Vincent Heuring)

The book is simply a BAD copy of the built-in help.
It has no substance.
It has no personality.
It has no structure.
It explains in too much detail the things that are obvious, and just mentions by name the things that are important.
It's main focus is how to make your datatabes look pretty on the screen.

All the authors accomplish in the 1500+ pages that is book offers, is prove that they are [not] experts on the subject.

Don't buy it.

Too many errors mar an otherwise very good book. Spelling mistakes are normal for a book of this size, but errors in descriptions of Expression syntax cannot be justified. The omission of characters as seemingly minor as quotations marks surrounding text is very important for a program as stringent as Access.
Get this book if you want a decent understanding from the ground up, but don't rely on this book by itself. Purchase another source of information, but beware of the Que book by Roger Jennings. His style of writing is reminiscent of rambling discourse.

...or your time if you're an intermediate to advanced Access user. Basically this book just reiterates what's in the help section - and we all know how good MS has made their help sections - of the program. I can't get answers to any of my questions... you'd have better luck going to the MS online forums and asking your questions there. But hey, if you're new to Access or not real computer savy, this book may be helpful. Beats learning/perfecting the art of obtaining help from MS "help". One last note, Access Inside/Out is the same thing, so if you do get one of them, only buy ONE.

Thorough discussion of fundamentals, which the Que book by Roger Jennings is sorely lacking in. Unfortunately, there are too many errors for me to recommend it as the only Access book a person should have. This is especially problematic when you're dealing with expression syntax, which Access is very particular about.

As a professional Access programmer in a corporate environment, I was quite surprised to find that this otherwise excellent book has absolutely nothing on security. The book will certainly help you understand how to build tables, queries, forms, etc., and it does have a lot of excellent examples; but a critical part of deploying any Access application in a multi-user environment is to make sure that proper security has been applied, and this book simply ignores the subject.

Buy it here. I went to Borders and paid full price. Boy, was I upset when I saw Amazon's price.

Read it. Many buy books and don't read them. I am not advising you to read every word, but I do suggest that you sit back and skim every page. There's a wealth of information here for every level of Access developer. I enjoyed the areas on XML, access and the internet, and hints and techniques about a variety of things that will help me in my daily work with Access.

Keep it and don't loan it out. You'll never get it back. I wouldn't give it back..and I'm a nice guy...it's that good!

I needed a decent book for teaching myself MS Access 2002. (Yes, an old version of software, and therefore difficult to obtain useful resources.) I struggled on with "Access For Dummies" but finally had enough of the stupid, inane tone and frantic ideology of attempting a funny one-liner somewhere in each line. I needed information that was concise, sensible and actually useable. Access Bible delivers learning that builds competency, showing clearly the development of a database using a single example (the Animal Hospital). As a reference, it is also eminently navigable, which is a huge relief in comparison with many other texts.

My only complaint is that the starter version of the example database file--Mountain Animal Start.mdb--which should contain only unrelated tables (making it suitable for building relationships from scratch) was mistakenly more developed that it should have been; not a completed database, just containing more than simply tables. It was annoying to have to pore through it to dismantle things back to bare tables, but overall, the journey to develop the Animal Hospital database still makes this book an excellent reference. Partnered with a good design book--eg, "Beginning Database Design" from Wrox--this book can get you up to speed on writing database applications that do what you need them to.

I noticed that used copies are in great condition. After the first 30 pages, the reader tends to become disengaged.

This is the first book I bought for Access 2002 and it looks like the only one I will need it contains in depth of every area of access that I know exists. It has great chapters on the new data access pages, writing SQL Server Applications and XML. I especially liked the well organized and continuous example used throughout the book. The CD contains incredible demos for all sorts of 3rd party products and even some free comercial products. I thoroghly recommend this book for any level access user or developer

I recevied it in a timely manner and in the condition stated at the time of order.