Customer Reviews

Microsoft Office Access 2007 LiveLessons (Video Training)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I use Access only occasionally, and so I haven't felt entirely comfortable delving into a new Access database project. My last project was before I upgraded to Office 2007, so I have been in the market for a good refresher. Alison Balter has great credentials as an Access trainer, and she doesn't disappoint. In 82 brief sessions, she covers all of the new features of Access 2007 and walks through the feature-set of this remarkable application, including importing and exporting to and from other databases, Excel spreadsheets, text files, websites and XML.

If you have no experience with Access, you may get lost along the way. On the other hand, if you want to dig deeper into the possibilities, you may wish for more substance. The examples are relevant, but often not very elegant - the consequence of this fast-paced training.

My only disappointment was that the video player provided had no provision to PAUSE the program (at least I couldn't find it). Inevitably, the phone would ring and I'd have to abandon the lesson mid-stream and come back to replay the segment. Since the segments are short, it wasn't that big of a deal. Also, I could not see the top Access menus in the video - they were cropped off by the window - a small distraction.

Having just finished the course, I'm looking forward to a new project that I have been thinking about for about a year now. I've also purchased Alison's sequel on Access 2007 VBA (I don't see it offered on Amazon.com)

and am looking forward to some more great training.

My first LiveLessons was on Excel macros. That was very good. Prompted me to buy more.

This LiveLesson for Access 2007 is pretty awful. Mostly random topics with skimpy information.

Lesson 14: Whats New With Replication is the worst yet. No ryhme or reason to this lesson. No explanation as to what the purpose is, no reasons for doing what she is doing. Too much reverse negative language. Far too little detail. Yeah, okay Microsoft is dropping replication. Why? No explantion or speculation for that? No. Got any alternatives? No. Did you mention Access 2007 has a new default file format for data bases? .MDB is replaced with .ACCDB. Access 2007 hides the replication command if you open a .accdb file. Could have told us that. Lesson 14 uses a file that does not exist but hey, open it right now anyhow. Really, this vid needed a script editor in a major way.

Lesson 13: What's new with ADP Files. Never does she mention what an ADP file is.

Lesson 12: What's new with Security. FYI, Windows Trusted Sites and the Access Trust Center are two completely different things.

Sorry to say the funny parts are where she is wandering thru 'menus' looking for commands as though she isn't all that familiar with the product being covered.

Like the first reviewer, I was upgrading to 2007 and had used 2003 only sporatically. I found the pace and the lessons very informative and through. I had a problem with seeing the whole screen at first and had to adjust the monitor settings. After that, I had no problems. There is a pause button, which I used frequently as I was creating a new data base as I went through the lessons. One of my coworkers also viewed the lessons, and she agrees with my assessment.

I thought this might help me. But it's a complete waste of time. Not well organized and amateurish in quality.