Customer Reviews

Programming Microsoft® Office Access 2003 (Core Reference) (Pro-Developer)

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

 

 

Microsoft Press and Rick Dobson did a great job in publishing a book that covers all the essentials for developing solutions with Access 2003. Having used several earlier versions of Access, I was happy to discover that many of the code samples and examples apply to earlier versions, such as Access 2000 and Access 2002.

As a developer, my clients expect me to be able to make things happen automatically. Access readily permits you to automate all aspects of it with VBA, and this book is chuck full of VBA code samples that I can readily use for my clients. The explanations of the samples are easy for me to follow.

Without burying me in trivial details or useless facts, this book empowers me to create solutions. It is just 842 pages. Big enough to cover lots of valuable content, but not so heavy that I can't conveniently carry it with me to a client's site. I especially liked that I could download from the author's web site content on extra topics, such as an intro to VBA and a whole chapter on class, form, and report modules. In fact, I am discovering that the author's web site (http://www.programmingmsaccess.com) is a real valuable resource for me all on its own.

This is an excellent book for learning how to write VBA in Access. I liked this book because:

1. It was easy to understand
2. Has lots of code examples

I noticed that some others have had problems getting the online content, so I wanted to share my experience. To get the online content:

1. http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/6768.asp (This is the URL listed on page XXI in the book and seemed to work fine for me)
2. On the right-hand side of the screen, in the "More Information" box, click on the "Companion Content" link.
3. You'll be redirected to another page for the book, just click on the "Download the book's sample and demo files."
4. Click the "Save" button to save the .EXE file to your computer (if you trust Microsoft Press, I did).
5. And then simply run the EXE by double-clicking on it and you'll have all of the demo and samples for the book!

Also, be sure to check out the Authors website at www.programmingmsaccess.com, as this site is also very helpful! Good luck and happy programming!!!

Let's make this simple - I am a 20+ year developer. This is my first time to work with Access/VB. This book made it very simple to find what I needed to know fast.

The book is well organized, the writing straight forward, the code examples highlight the concepts and make it easy to understand those concepts quickly. I *like* that!

The extremely low cost of ~$50 got me there *fast* and saved me hours of digging around the internet for the info I needed.

Spend the $$ and get the work done.
This book worth every penny.

Not only is the book excellent in that it has lots of pertinent material for the sorts of work I am doing in Access, but when I did have a small problem with one of the examples, the author responded immediately to my request for clarification, and all has gone well since then. I didn't have any problem with downloading the code.
I have many books on Access development, some good and some not so good. This one is always on the top of the stack for reference.

I work for an energy management company and I find Access has robust data management capabilities that can be put to fruition without having to necessarily rely on outside people. In spite of its purported weakness on the web-solutions side, Access still is the only application that encompasses both desktop and server environments. Obviously, to take advantage of that, you need to be conversant with how Access ticks so if you want a book that will show you how to do all kinds of acrobatics with recordsets, this is the one for you!
Even better if you couple it with Programming Microsoft Office Access 2000 by the same author because they're not a rehash of each other and the latter covers the basics, such as designing tables, a bit more. The author's style is concise and to the point which allows him to span the whole gamut of what Access has to offer to the programmer.

The book was not exactly what I thought it was going to be. It seemed to really not cover forms in very much detail. Other areas such as ADO topics were covered more indepth than I would expect. This is a very techincal book and I don't think it would be very useful for people looking to learn access development. Overall an OK book but not one of the best that I have read.

I spent over an hour and 4 phone calls only to find Microsoft confirms that the books website is wrong and there is no companion CD for the book (no CD came with my book). The example is not available for download on the web as stated inside and on the books cover. Rick Dobson, the author, returned my email and said that he would send it on to MS Press. The book covers Access Projects and SQL Server in depth. This book is excellent for building a solid SQL Server front end application. But, I still would like to get the example code as promised in the book!

This book is for the advanced user wanting to built a special application. Everything you need to program your application is in it.

It has been a great additional resource. I wouldn't say it is a complete desktop reference, but definitely helpful.

I initially had program with downloading & installing the companion content, too. I contacted the author and he directed me to the MS Press support team. The latter replied that nothing was wrong with either the download link or the book instruction and suggested that I should empty my Temporary Internet file and then try to download again. So I did, and for many times, it failed again and again. But finally, and I don't know why, it WORKED. I would agree that a simple companion CD with the book would be much preferred.