Access 2007 For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) (Paperback)

by Laurie Ulrich Fuller (Author), Ken Cook (Author), John Kaufeld (Author)
Key Phrases: property sheet, report header, input mask, Ask Your Data, Quick Access, Obere Str (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Reduce stress with timesaving database shortcuts


Explore database basics and build tables and reports that corral your data

Access has undergone an extreme makeover! Whether you've used one of the older versions or this is your first exposure to Access, here's where you'll find the essentials you need to make this database system work for you. Cruise around the new interface, team up Access with other Office applications, use wizards to automate your work, and much more.

Discover how to
* Create a new Access database
* Import and export data
* Build forms for efficient data entry
* Search tables for specific data
* Construct custom reports
* Customize your database navigation

From the Back Cover
Reduce stress with timesaving database shortcuts

Explore database basics and build tables and reports that corral your data

Access has undergone an extreme makeover! Whether you've used one of the older versions or this is your first exposure to Access, here's where you'll find the essentials you need to make this database system work for you. Cruise around the new interface, team up Access with other Office applications, use wizards to automate your work, and much more.

Discover how to

• Create a new Access database
• Import and export data
• Build forms for efficient data entry
• Search tables for specific data
• Construct custom reports
• Customize your database navigation

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 1 edition (December 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470046120
• ISBN-13: 978-0470046128
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #11,331 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great beginning book, but one significant shortcoming..., March 7, 2008

By	P. Ford (Carnation, WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My spouse volunteered to take on a data collection and manipulation project for a non-profit using Access. Here is her report:

I was familiar with the basics of relational database design, and had used Access to a limited extent about 8 years ago. I had a good understanding of the data and how it would be used, so designing a robust database was pretty straightforward. My limitation was the nuts and bolts mechanics of using Access, especially the new 2007 version. I collected about 5 books on Access 2007 from the library, and this is the one really dove into, and ultimately ended up buying. I would say that if you are using Access 2007 you should be sure to buy a book specific to 2007, not earlier versions.

I really like the format of the book--it is organized into logical sections that are easy to follow. I especially like the way the infomation is presented-- there are plenty of examples with adequate illustrations, but the basic ideas are well explained before the examples, so that I found it easy just to sit down and read it to absorb most of the basic ideas. Then after I had acquired a good overview of, say, forms and their applications, I went back to the examples to try them out on my own data. Many of the other books I used explained the concepts only through the examples, so unless you were actually sitting at the computer following each and every step it was difficult to gather the fundamental concepts.

I think the sections on basic database design concepts would be adequate for those not so familiar with relational databases.

I did find one major omission that is critical enough that I ended up buying another book to supplement this one. I did not find any reference to action queries such as update, append, and delete. These have been really crucial to me as I consolidate date from many different sources, and the lack of info on action queries is glaring! (I'll admit that I didn't read EVERY word of this book, so I guess it is possible that I somehow overlooked it, but I was read the first 250 out of 350 pages pretty carefully.) I ended up buying "The Unofficial Guide to Access 2007" by Jim Keogh to supplement, but I'll warn you even that one has misinformation on the format of update queries...

All in all, though, I found this book to be a great basic introduction--concisely written, in an easily digested style. Very useful.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Lots of issues ..., July 23, 2008

By	Anon E. Mouse "Anon E. Mouse" (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

I bought this book for the same reason I buy any "For Dummies" book, to decrease my ramp up time on a particular subject. Generally I can blow through one of these books in a few days and move on to more advanced books on that topic. Disappointingly, I was unable to achieve this goal with 'Access 2007 for Dummies'.

First of all this book starts out assuming that you have a database to work with and makes no effort in teaching you how to build a database from the ground up. Continuing on the assumption that you have your own database (filled with data) that you are going to be working with, the author has to stay in a "high level mode" for the rest of the book. Most of the book has vague references and examples that read something like "If you have X type of data in a Y type of structure you may want to try something like Z". Well, I don't have a my own database filled with this type of data, so, I went looking on the publishers web site for example databases to work with. I was happy when I found out there were example databases on the publishers site, but further disappointed to find out that these examples are rarely used. This makes following along by example next to impossible. The few times when these example databases are used they don't entirely match up to the screenshot's in the book . Which brings me to books use of screenshots. Screenshots are generally a good thing when working with a GUI application such Access. However, the screenshots are off little use due to the fact that the screenshots are of the entire application window, rather than being cropped to show you the control in question. So, when the author is referencing a specific control such as a small button you have to hunt and peck your way through the grayscale image trying to find the button that looks depressed.

After all of the fore mentioned pitfalls I still continued through the book. I was really interested in getting to the sections on charting and switchboarding. Once again, I was disappointed. The author claims that Access 2007 has no charting capability and the reader should use Excel or PowerPoint instead. First of all, this is incorrect. Charting is available in Access 2007 via the "Design View" in a report. Secondly, the author gives no instruction on how to create charts in Excel or PowerPoint as he advises the reader to do. The chapter on switchboards is all of 11 pages long (mostly screenshots) and contains next to no information on how to get these set up and working. As a matter of fact I could not get any of the switchboard examples to work properly with the example databases provided by the publisher.

In the end I ended up learning quite a bit about Access. However, most of what I learned was done with online research while trying to stumble through this book. Getting through this book took me about 4 times longer than it should have due to a the above mentioned problems. All and all this ended up being a waste of time for someone who was short on time in the first place.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Access 2007, May 30, 2007

By	S. Battersby (New York, New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Great step-by-step guide for someone who is forced to delve right into the tool with little prior database knowledge.