Customer Reviews

New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Access 2007, Comprehensive (New Perspectives (Thomson Course Technology))

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This book is obscenely overpriced for the content. I bought this book because it was required for a MS Access class. When this class is over, I will probably never open this book again. It does a very good job in walking you through the steps needed to complete each assignment and tutorial. However it does very little in explaining what is going on in each step.

For example, "To modify the calculated controls and their attached labels: step 9 - ... set the Tab Stop to No, set the ControlTip Text propery to Calculated total number of invoices for this contract..." (pg312). To this day, I have no idea why I had to do that.

When it comes time to design or modify a real database that is set up differently than the examples, you will have trouble figuring out what is going on.

Also, there is no disc included with the practice databases you will need. Unless your teacher provides them to you, you will have to download them from the web. Have fun with that if you have a slow connection.

I have a hard time understanding many to many relationships. It's probably the most complicated concepts in database design. However the book only spent 7 1/2 pages (and 1 simple example) on it. So I still don't understand it well.

Don't get this book if you don't have to. It will help you get through a MS Access class, but it is a poor reference book.

I would recomend Access 2007: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald instead. The Missing Manual focuses on basic design and understanding overall database concepts.

This text takes you through step by step. However, formatting and technical aspects are given the same weight and are interspersed through each chapter. There is no list of generic steps to follow so you must abstract the rule when your database requirements differ from that in the text. The tutorials at the end (after chapter 4) require some skill that is not developed in the sample problems. It is unnecessarily wordy making it difficult to follow (there is no recognition that the user would have some basic Office skills like holding the shift key down to move a selected object). Often, a process is separated into several headings making it unclear how the process fits together as a whole. New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Access 2007, Comprehensive (New Perspectives)

This is not going to be a very long review, but I would just like to combat the reviews others have left.

This book is a step by step walk through of different scenarios. They are consistent in the fact that they do not skip steps, and if you follow precisely, you should not get too lost.

Case scenarios (homework sections) can be completed by applying what you do in the tutorials, which can be referenced if you get stuck.

I would say for a beginner to access, it could seem overwhelming, especially if using this for an independent study course - if you are just learning, try to get it in a class with a knowledgeable instructor to help you through!

I knew some access prior to coming into this class, so maybe that's why it wasn't as bad to me as others led me to believe.

The book consists of twelve step-by-step tutorials on Microsoft Access. On the one hand, the tutorials do comprehensively cover all of Access's features. On the other hand, the book is woefully inadequate in explaining the WHY. For example, the only material on normalisation appears in an appendix, and the book contains very little on requirements analysis or ER design.

As an example, Tutorial 10 explains click by click how to view the SQL generated by Access for various queries created in the GUI, but the book does not cover SQL otherwise. Vital information such as when to use a database at all, when to use Access, and when to use a more powerful database system are likewise absent.

In short, people who already know how to use database don't need this book, and people who don't need a different book.

One star is too generous. I'd give it none if I could. I am an experienced Access user, but like most people, I am confused by the new "ribbon" design. I took a course at a local community college which uses this book. It is terrible. It is more like a comic book, with little real direction. The tutorials are confusing, and do not include basic design info, such as copying the database periodically to avoid redos if a msitake is made. Many of the directions do not work (per using Microsoft for guidance). The formatting is pathetic. It is difficult to find anything. It really lacks focus and a clear methodology. The entire impression I have is that it was thrown together very quickly without a lot of thought, or review. Clear and concise are words evidently unknown to the authors. The format is almost comoc book in nature, and the color scheem becomes overwhelming after 2 pages. It's only use is in a landfill. I can't say enough negative things about it. My sympathies to poor students who have to pay the exhorbant price for garbage.

Yesterday I passed the Microsoft Certification exam for Access 2007 (77-605). I got a 733 and needed a 660 to pass. It was the second time I took the test. Looking back this was the only book I needed. Origionally I worked through each chapter and then at least one problem at the end. Then I purchased some practice tests off the internet from uCertify and they were worthless.

Looking back all I needed to do was go through this book a 2nd if not 3rd time and I would have passed the certification exam the first time.

I debated whether to give this book 2 or 3 stars. It's not as bad as some of the other books that have been written for online courses. On the other hand, it's a pretty sloppy effort, and looks like no one bothered to proofread it. It's frustrating to try to do one of the problems at the end of the chapter and have a figure that the problem refers to directly contradict the instructions. And there is nothing about how to create databases, which makes the book of limited use.

As others have said, the book relies too much on working through examples with inadequate explanation of what the examples are supposed to accomplish. In my opinion, many chapters contained too many topics. The book would benefit from more chapters (there are 15 weeks in a typical semester, so there's nothing magic about 12 chapters). As the course went on, I found myself finding better and simpler ways of doing tasks than the examples direct students to do.

This book was required for my Access class, but it was just plainly monotonous and boring. Its helpful though, basically a step by step guide to most development of a small scale access database.

I have used this and the New Perspectives in Excel. They are easy to follow and give step by step instruction. If you actually read the course text in addition to the step by step walk through it works really well. I still use the Excel New Perspectives as a reference tool.

Why is this book required for database classes? If you follow along with the book, you learn nothing about proper database construction or why you are doing what you do. The chapters aren't organized in any logical way. Unrelated features are clumped together for no apparent reason. Hopefully I can sell this junky book.