Customer Reviews

Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Access 2007

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the summary review of four Access 2007 books:
"Special Edition: Using Access 2007" (Special)
"Access 2007 Bible" (Bible)
"The missing Manual of Access 2007" (Manual)
"Access 2007 for dummies" (Dummies)

In sum, the special edition is the best. Buy the special edition. Even you are a fresh beginner on Access.

(My story? Well, I read the dummies first. Then looked at Manual, doesn't like it. So I got the bible. Still unsatisfied. Finally, I got the special edition.)I know some basics on Access 2003 and only use Access when Excel is not enough to handle my data. I started with "Access 2007 for dummies" and finished it in a couple of hours. Then I turned to "Access 2007 Bible" and "The missing Manual", the manual is the worst one and the bible just provides basics, well, maybe a bit more than, that the dummies book already covers.

The special edition provides more examples and detailed explanation on: Query, Forms, Reports, Pivot table.Not sure about the VBA part.

I also like very much the reader-friendly layout and enjoy its "what is in real world" sections at the end of several chapters.

This book also provides a good summary of basic database concepts like normalized, the importance of index, joints. The summary is very helpful especially you are a beginner.

The cover of the special edition claims that the special edition is the only Access book you need. Well, maybe not the only one, but if you have the special edition, you definitely don't need the Access 2007 Bible, The missing manual and the dummies book.

"Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Access 2007" by Roger Jennings is an adequate Refrence Manual for getting up to speed with the many new features of the product.

However, as someone who is an experienced Access developer, I was somewhat disappointed with the depth of knowledge. It had very little VBA reference and few code examples. I would have liked to see a little more insight into collection objects and how to use the attributes and methods.

The index was too sparse. Several things that I looked up in the index were not there only to find information later when reading more in depth.

I'd say this book caters more to your super user than a developer. It would be good for getting up to speed quickly but lacks the proper depth to make solid applications.

This is the book needed for (USING ACCESS) it states that on the cover...
It is a very good in depth, quality(user-frendly) information provider
Access 2007 has changed all the rules. Today a simiskilled Access user, can now in very little time, armed with this book, build, complete or modify complete Access data bases.
Building indepth data structures for custom applications is a snap by sprinboarding off already created templates and then modifying queries, adding operators and expressions for detailed multilevel structured reports. Get (Mircosoft Office Access 2007 templates (Zac Woodall) Zac climbs the ladder of Access Template creation and modifications))
The new well explained Infopath intergration capabilities are just awesome, we are getting closer to complete intergration of MS Office without a single line of code, and that should be the goal..
The Dashboard building capability for Access, brings to life the ability of Access to create custom applications; endless professional looking designs, without the need for coding..
Programing is less than 100 pages, again the title is USING ACCESS
The MS Access Team and Roger Jennings are bringing this already user frendly Data Base application to a new level with little or no VBA needed.. The book is packed with info, so get out your markers and tabs.

I've used earlier editions of Jennings' Access Special Editions before and as usual find them packed with useful information and well structured for learning about the product. Sometimes I wish there was a manual that covered the top 25 things that most everyone needs to know to use Access in three chapters and a good index to find the details and in-depth usage in a separate 30 chapter section. This book has just gotten so very large that I can use it as a free weight instead of going to the gym.
Seriously though, my main complaint, as in previous editions is the index. Individual commands are not listed or referenced as such, you have to know where they are used as a group and maybe then you can find them. I have to add a separate index of my own when I finally find what I'm looking for. (Try to find IIf sometime.)

It's a couple of years since I owned this book. Now that I have explored most of its contents, I would say that it is most suitable for beginning to intermediate level. The book is bulky with detailed discussion. It is as the author states, a reference and a tutorial. So, if you have plenty of time and not in a hurry, you would gain a lot from this book. It is not, however, "The Only Access Book You Need" as stated in the front cover. For that matter, I don't think any book would be able to do just that. You would need a least one decent VBA book to complement it. I have three VBA's right now :)

Access is such a vast technology, and don't expect to get everything explained with just one or two books.

This book is a great Access 2007 Reference. I use it almost every day. It could use more examples though.

I purchased this book for a project, based on the stellar reviews that had been posted. Unfortunately, well-meaning people provided the wrong types of reviews and I wasted money on this book!
So, to help you put into context my decidedly negative rating of this book, I will provide background on my roles here at work; I am primarily the chief data architect responsible for all things OLTP, OLAP and DSS related. That means I spend 90% of my time writing T-SQL and related code to manage and insert, update or delete rows into tables in databases on SQL Server systems.
The other 10% of my time is spent mostly on .NET development doing same - that means developing web based applications where data grids are populated with results from SELECT statements or, forms have been built that will insert, update or delete a row from a table based on input into the form.

Now that you know the context, my basic problem is this; we have departments that created Access 'applications' by this I mean they know enough to create a very simple application where a few dozen rows can be easily handled by the one person they deployed the 'application' to. Now, however, the application has outgrown the design, more powerful queries and forms management is required and most importantly, we need to move the tables to SQL for maintenance and performance considerations; breaking Access apart so multiple users can have the 'application' part and the 'database' part is on SQL Server.

Based on the book's title, and the stellar reviews, I purchased this book to help me tackle this project. That was 3 weeks ago, and while I admit I have not had the time to read the book cover to cover; that is precisely the point of this negative review. Because in order to know everything necessary to meet the title's claim to be the "only access book you will ever need" you have to thoroughly read and digest this book. You have to do this because unlike other books aimed at developer's, this book doesn't start with a 'basics' project and build out from there - it starts with the (in)famous Northwind and some templates to load - which I might do if there were lessons that would take me through the essential parts of what I need to know.

The layout of this book does not do this - so if you are looking for such a book; for example that would provide a section on "How to create a simple form, bind a combo box control to a table, and a query using a WHERE clause"; then this is not the book for you.

Go find another !!!

If on the other hand, your roles and responsibilities consist of a scope where you have say, 20 hours a week to just sit and read and learn and muse and play; then you might find this book quite handy. I find it a colossal waste of money and time trying to read through sections and glean enought to get anywhere.

And why would I even be looking for a book on Access development? Well, if Office had a decent BOL as does SQL Server, I probably wouldn't. But Office is sadly deficient in any useful how to instructions - either in help or online; instead, Office Product Management seems to believe, as does the author of the book if you just go through definitions and descriptions of what to do that is somehow sufficient... it decidedly is not.

Save your $$$ - look elsewhere !!!!

The book arrived very promptly and in great shape. I already have several Que publications and they have never failed to be very informative on Microsoft software. I wouldn't change anything because everyting went so smoothly. I am extremely pleased with my purchase.

W. H. Wall

Learning Access and switching to Office 2007 at the same time was more than I could cope with. This helped a bunch.

This book provides a lot of detail but so far, the answers to my questions aren't always easy to find. I have to look at the index multiple times to review the material on one subject matter.