Customer Reviews

Special Edition Using Microsoft Access 2000

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was looking for a good "intermediate level" Access book ... IMHO they are hard to find. In this 1200-page book, the author relegates the subject of VBA to the last 200 pages. To some this may be a "negative", but it permits the author to cover the "non-VBA" aspects of Access in greater detail.

While it is true that almost any good Access application will require some VBA, it is also important to understand "how the code (Access) works". I my own case, once I learned a little VBA, I had a tendency to use it for everything. Unfortunately, many times I was trying to "reinvent" things that, as I found out later, Access could do automatically. But how would you know unless you understand "how the code works"?

Based on recent "disappointing" experiences with QUE books (ie, filled with mistakes), I was skeptical about purchasing this book. Fortunately the number of typos is tolerable. And after reading many of the chapters, I am glad that I purchased this book. I have learned more about the non-VBA aspects of Access from this book than from any other Access book (and I have quite a few Access books).

This book is rated "Intermediate/Advanced", but since the author states in the Introduction that "each major topic begins with the assumption that you have no prior experience with the subject" and the fact that the book is "VBA-Lite", I'd rate it Beginner/Intermediate ... just what I was looking for.

My recommendations ...
If you are new to Access, first get a copy of Microsoft Press "Access Step By Step" book then purchase Jenning's "Using Access 2000. If you are new to Access VBA, first get a copy of Microsoft Press "Access/VBA Step By Step" book then get Barker's "Microsoft Access 2000 Power Programming"

I've purchased every edition of Roger's "Special Edition Using Access" series since version 2.0. Each edition has fully covered what I've needed to know about the new releases, and has provided insights into enhancements to (or bugs introduced into) existing functionality.

Contrary to the remarks by the reviewer from Texas, there's an entire chapter devoted to Data Access Projects (DAP) and another to Access Data Projects (ADP) and the Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE). The possible reason for limited ASP (Active Server Pages) coverage is that Microsoft removed the ability to convert forms to ASP from Access 2000.

All in all, I've always considered Roger's books to be the best bet for all serious Access users, beginning to advanced.

I am only on chapter six of this book, and I already LOVE it. I've read MANY Access books, and have never gotten much out of them. Roger has a real gift of being able to guide you thorugh the program smoothly, in a "real world" way. I don't feel like i'm being fed "menu item descriptions". I'm being led thorugh database development, with procedured bewing described on an as needed basis... and yet NOTHING's being left out! Just trust me. If you are new or not 100% competent with Access 2000, and want to ENJOY learning MORE that just how to "click on this to do this", BUY THIS BOOK.

I recently used SEUMA2K as a reference in an introductory course in Database Management Systems. Over the duration of the class I became progressively more impressed with both the breadth of the content and the clarity of the presentation. Obviously, this was not Mr. Jenning's first encounter with Access.

I also found that the new features of A2K were very well delineated and the production quality of the book was quite high. I don't quite understand what the reader felt about .asp belonged in a text on A2k - but certainly ADP's were given an adequate discussion given their novelty and lack of specifics from Microsoft.

It was also apparent that the author really has a grasp of database systems that goes well beyond Access. The short section on Data Warehouses and OLAP was typical - well beyond Access, but nicely added in context.

I can recommend it well.

This is not a book for beginners!! If you are an experienced Access programmer, you will get a lot out of this publication. It is well worth the purchase price and an order of magnitude ahead of some books out there that cost considerably more!

I'm generally a fan of the Special Edition volumes. They are usually well written and edited, though the indices are usually mediocre. Mr. Jennings' book is, however, a disappointment. The knowledge is certainly there. Unfortunately most of it can be found in the Microsoft Access 2000 Help file. If this volume were better organized and indexed than the Microsoft help file, that would be a benefit of small not inconsiderable importance. Unfortunately, the organization of this book strikes me as worse than the MS Access help file.
Important topics are reduced to cryptic index entries - if they are to be found at all. Inter-related information on topics are widely and often illogically separated. Examples are often very sparse and, ultimately, unenlightening.
Overall, this volume is a disappointment. The information may very well be contained somewhere in the book, but you can find it faster in other tomes on the subject, in the MS Access help file or the MS KnowledgeBase.

Jerry

I had used Access 97 in two previous jobs, and had to build a small database in one of them. I knew, however, that I could do much more with it, and since I had Office 2000 at home I bought this book to improve my skills in Access 2000. I sought a good, thorough, one volume reference work and found it! As the author discusses early on, the first fifteen chapters walk you through a solid understanding of the basics of Access 2000 (e.g. building an application, tables, queries, forms, and reports). Each chapter has exercises that make use of the sample database that comes with Access, and I strongly recommend that you do these exercises (I only wish Excel had something comparable).

I am now interested enough in Access 2000 to go ahead and want to learn SQL and perhaps even VBA. Later chapters of this book contain introductions to those topics, as well as a good chapter on relational database design. I have not used the CD-ROM that comes with the book as much as I had expected, but it contains much material that supplements what is in the book (e.g. an additional database to practice with). My only caution is that this may not be the best book for those who are totally, completely new to Access (you can get the Dummies title for that). However, if you want a well rounded one volume reference book on Access, I strongly recommend this title!

Access seemed pretty easy to handle at first. Once I got down to the bare bones in programming, I wasn't liking it one bit. When I purchased this book, I noticed that there was a lot of information that can help me fix and have me back on track with Access. I recommend it because it is simply a hardcore tool and gets down to specifics. From beginner to Advanced, I can count on this book. I still haven't finished it but I have found it very useful!

From my perspective, someone with plenty of computing experience but not much Access knowledge, this book is well below par.

I was hoping for a reference volume that I could quickly dip into to answer questions I have when I am using Access at work. However this book isn't much good at all as a reference. The main problem is the format, it is set out as lessons which you follow step by step. Which is fine if you want to do exactly what they are describing. But if you want to leave the authors path to do something slightly different forget it.

The other thing is that this book is over 1200 pages long. It definitely doesn't need to be that long, lots of the words are completely redundant unless this is your first time using a computer.

Here's an example, picked at random:
'Position the mouse pointer over the copied option group so that the pointer becomes a hand symbol. Hold down the mouse button and drag the option group to a new position.'

With an editor this might have read:
'Drag the copied option group to a new position.'

I bought this because I hadn't been particularly impressed with Access Database Design & Programming, published by O'Reilly, which I had used in the past. I don't have the O'Reilly book anymore, so I can't directly compare. However as I remember my problem with it was that it was too focussed on DB design theory. However if it was only half as good as the books that O'Reilly usually put out it would still definitely be worth a look before buying this one.

I purchased this book hoping to use it as a reference. There are many interdependencies between chapters. As a result, I am unable to jump to different topics without having to go back to some other chapter to create the tables needed for the new topic. It seems the only way to learn with this book is by reading from cover to cover, in order...1200+ pages! There must be an easier way, so I will return the book tomorrow and try another one.