Hands-On Microsoft Access: A Practical Guide to Improving Your Access Skills (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for "Hands-On Microsoft Access" is as follows. "Bob has distilled the essence of database design and Access development into a highly valuable and easily understandable resource that I wish was available when I first started out." - Graham R. Seach, Microsoft Access MVP. "If you've been using Access with that typical uncertainty, asking yourself 'Just how could I do that?' or 'Why isn't this working?', if you'd like to know what you're doing before you hit the wall, this book is probably perfect for you." - Olaf Rabbachin, CEO, IntuiDev IT-solutions. "Life at the cutting edge of Access development is exciting and very challenging. The knowledge and experience gained over many years of research and trial-and-error has been hard won. But Bob's new book encapsulates the knowledge we now take for granted, and for the first time the beginner is afforded the opportunity to bypass all that hard work. In this his latest work, Bob has distilled the essence of database design and Access development into a highly valuable and easily understandable resource that I wish was available when I first started out." - Graham R Seach, MCP, MCAD, MCSD, Microsoft Access MVP, author. "This is an excellent book for beginners, with an easy reading style. It is now on my recommended list of books that I hand out in every Access class that I teach." - M.L. "Sco" Scofield, Microsoft Access MVP, MCSD, Senior Instructor, Scofield Business Services. ""If you've been using Access with that typical uncertainty, asking yourself 'Just how could I do that?' or 'Why isn't this working?', if you'd like to know what you're doing before you hit the wall, this book is probably perfect for you. Access is a tremendous product and a database is created using a few clicks; but without at least some theoretical background you're bound to encounter problems soon. I wish a book like this one would've been available when I started getting deeper into working with Access some ten years ago." - Olaf Rabbachin, CEO, IntuiDev IT-solutions. "This book is for any level DB developer/user. It is packed full of real-world examples and solutions that are not the normal Northwind database that most Access books use. The examples and the technical content surrounding them are the real strength of the book. Schneider uses real-world scenarios that make for excellent reading. It made me want to go and redo a lot of my older Access DBs that were not written as well as they could have been. This book taught me different approaches to doing some routine tasks." - Ron Crumbaker, Microsoft MVP - SMS. "While a very powerful application (or perhaps because of its power), Microsoft Access does have a steep learning curve and can be intimidating to new users. Bob Schneider has managed to write a book that's both understandable and enjoyable to read. His examples should be understandable to all readers, and he extends them in a logical manner. This book should leave the reader well equipped to make use of what many consider to be the best desktop database product available." - Doug Steele, Microsoft Access MVP. "The author takes what is potentially a very dry subject and adds fantastic colour through entertaining analogies and metaphors. For instance, his examples using the NBA, the Beatles, and Donald Rumsfeld help us - get it - without realizing we have just traversed what could be very stale database theory. Brilliant!" - Kel Good, MCT, MCSD for Microsoft.NET, Custom Software Development Inc. Go from Access "beginner" to Access "master"! Millions of people use Microsoft Access, but only a small fraction of them are really comfortable with it. If you're ready to go "beyond the wizards" - and become a confident, highly effective Access user- "Hands-On Microsoft Access" was written for you. In plain English, Bob Schneider helps you master crucial principles for building flexible, powerful databases. Discover how to enter data more easily, retrieve it more freely, manipulate it more successfully, analyze it with greater sophistication, and share it more effectively. Schneider's dozens of hands-on examples thoroughly demystify Access, and his friendly, conversational style makes it more approachable than ever before. "Hands-On Microsoft Access" presents solutions for the challenges you're most likely to encounter, including: How do Access objects and interfaces fit together, and when should I use each one? What's the best way for me to organize my fields into tables? How can I modify the tables, forms, and reports an Access wizard created for me? How can I design forms and reports for people to use more effectively? How do primary keys and relationships work, and why are they so important? How do I make sure my data stays consistent and accurate? How do I build queries that give me the right information - quickly, efficiently, and reliably? How do I use data from other sources, or deliver Access data to other people or programs? What are PivotTables and PivotCharts, what can I do with them, and how do I use them?

Product Description

Access is one of the most widely used pieces of software. Perhaps more so than any other common program, such as Word or Excel, though, many of its users find it more vexing to really understand and use well. This is because you can't use Access successfully without a framework in your head of how a relational database management system works, and almost none of us have that training. While there are many books on Access, most of them are either introductory tutorials on how to use Access's features, or big comprehensive references. None of them give a good solid grounding in basic database design principles. This book fills that need; there really is no other book on Access like it on the market. The author has written for on Access for more than seven years, and knows how to present complicated principles clearly and in an easyto- understand way.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (September 3, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321245458
• ISBN-13: 978-0321245458
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #652,646 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth the Time, September 24, 2005

By	Jase T. Wolfe - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

If you are new to database concept and design and are looking for a title to teach you about Microsoft Access as your database solution, then this is a good book. Readers are not expected to initially know much more than how to open Access and poke around, and are guided thru database construct concepts, table development, table relationship organization, and basic queries, to the application development utilizing internal forms and reports. The chapters logically build on themselves so you always have a working foundation for the next concept introduced. Information is presented hands-on, requiring the reader to develop the sample database as they read the book instead of relying on either the Microsoft provided Northwind database, or an author provided finished solution. Chapters are concluded with "case examples" where you are able to step by step further apply what was just covered, helping to solidify the information.

For a book of this size, the information is fairly complete for the beginner, and by the end of the book one can understand and create relatively complex Access database applications. To be fair, if you are looking to "specialize" in Microsoft Access, this will not be the last title on the subject you buy. What you will not find in the chapters is a complete overview of the Access flavor of SQL, in-depth coverage of advanced query types (they are introduced), in-depth macro development (macros are discussed), or VBA development. All of this is fine as they are complex topics and go beyond the scope of this book.

It is important to keep in mind that this is a book on Microsoft Access-specific database application development, and not on databases in general, not in programming, not on the industry standard SQL language, not in using Access databases in web pages or other applications, and not a "secrets" style book where you might expect to be shown the secret handshake that makes Access into something more powerful than it is. Purchase this book if you're goal is to learn and master the basics of Microsoft Access; the information is there, well presented, and well worth the time to study.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars learn about SQL and designing relational databases, September 3, 2005

By	W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is not a trivial book. It will not teach you Microsoft Access in 24 hours, for example. There is a lot covered here, and if you are new to Access, it will certainly engage your attention for some time.

In essence, Schneider does not "just" teach you Access. Learning it is also about learning SQL and designing relational databases. Access is Microsoft's front end to its SQL Server database. The book shows how it is a very powerful user interface that eases the design and building of a database.

For instance, Access has forms. Powerful constructs that let you input data and test this data for the underlying tables. You can put built in checks about the validity of the data that will be typed into a form. A trivial but important example might be that a box in the form that should expect an integer will indicate an error if a number with a decimal point is entered, or if letters are entered. Schneider points out that checks like this makes data input far more efficient. I would differ only in saying that perhaps he does not emphasise this enough. While you, the database designer, can have the most intricate sets of interrelated tables, this avails little in practise if the data entry clerks type in contaminated data. All your planning can come to nought. You should spend time beefing up your forms with as many checks as feasible.

6 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Microsoft MVP 2005 - Visual C# recommends caution, September 11, 2005

By	Robbe D. Morris "Robbe Morris" (Orlando, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Hands-On Microsoft Access is one of the better Access books "if" you are developing entire applications in Microsoft Access. This includes using Access forms as well as reports.
The author does a nice job of explaining how to write fairly elaborate Access applications. Tons of screen shots and real world terminology is a plus for beginners.

However, if you are writing applications in a typical programming language such as Visual Basic 6.0 or any one of the .NET languages, you'll want to pass on this one.

The book won't cover any of the SQL quirks Microsoft Access has and the less than easy to find workarounds.