Domain Name Com's Access 2003 All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies

Access 2003 All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies

Domain Name Com's - : Access 2003 All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies

- Great book for filling in the blanks
I've had limited exposure to Access before reading this book, and I found it fantastic for filling in the blanks in my knowledge. Access is complicated enough that, for true beginners, it would probably be more helpful to get a book that comes with a CD of examples and walk-throughs. But if you have a handle on the basics, I'd highly recommend this book.

Rating:

- Mostly Worthless
Most of the examples and/or instructions do not work correctly when applied to an actual database.

Rating:

- ACCESS Dummies book is good...
I am pretty good with computers and figuring out new software. This book had decent basic explanations of the functions & tools, but I had to review the book several times to figure out how to link Tables, and I still couldn't figure it out. I looked on Microsoft.com/Access at their Access database Templates to see how tables are linked together (see the Contact Management Database - its fantastic !) and had to look at each individual table & form to figure out how tables relate to each other in order for them to be linked... and I still couldn't quite figure it out.

The disappointing part about the book is that in order for ACCESS to really work for you, you need to understand how to link tables and the book was just not that helpful in that area.

I'm glad I have the book, however, it does help with many other basic things, but I would imagine you'd have to get someone to sit down and show you how to link tables in order for you to grasp the concept of it. To me, its like 3-dimensional thinking - and that's a bit too mind numbing for me to figure out on my own.

Rating:

- Microsoft Office Access 2003
Excellent book. Easy to follow; includes lots of cross-references.
It's helped me to improve my database building capabilities.

Rating:

- Best Reference I Have Found
I started a new job in the Information Reporting Office of a State Education Department. I am fluent in SPSS programming, but have had little experience with Access. My job turns out to entail retrieving many data files in an Access format from a master database stored in Oracle on a mainframe using ODBC. I have had to learn quickly how to manipulate those databases to obtain the information needed to put into files for Federal reporting purposes. I needed a comprehensive reference to Access that would allow me to learn how to use Access to perform data manipulations that are easy to perform with Statistical Analysis packages such as SPSS. For example, every School is assigned a 12-digit code, and each sequence of two or four digits embedded in the code has a distinct meaning, such as a reference to the county of location or type of school. So I had to learn quickly how to "parse" the long "string" field into new separate string fields made up of the component parts of the 12-digit string. I also needed to aggregate data on field values to obtain counts and sums. These are basic functions, easy to look up or find in the index when using a program like SPSS. These sorts of functions do have counterparts in Access, but the indexes of such books are geared to the business user and do not refer to such functions with the standard terms such as "parse," "string function," or "aggregate" that are familiar to people used to using statistical packages to manipulate data.
I looked at many older Access reference books in our office. I ordered the Alison Balter "Mastering Microsoft Office Access 2003" book from Amazon after reading the reviews. I was not able to find what I needed to learn from those books. Fortunately, I also ordered "Access 2003 All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies," from which I was able to figure out everything I needed to know. Once I knew what I needed to know, which in retrospect seem like simple functions, I went back to the other reference books to see how that information was presented and to figure out why I hadn't been able to find it. I still wasn't able to find some of these functions in the Balter book.
I wouldn't write a review panning the Balter book because it may be excellent for its intended audience, developers working on form and report interfaces for commercial clients. But if you need to quickly get up and running learning how to manipulate data with Access, but are not a total novice with programming, and need some fairly sophisticated information, the "All-In-One Dummies" book certainly was far superior to the others. It could be better, as noted in a review below, if the index would include words familiar to more sophisticated programmers using other programs, such as "parse, "aggregate," etc., but the table of contents was so detailed, and the examples in the book so detailed and clear, that I was able to quickly figure out where the information would be in the book if it were to be found anywhere.
For example, to find the "parsing function," I lookded under Book III: Queries (because I at least knew that "Queries" do most of the manipulations on data), Chapter 2: Letting Queries Do the Math, (Because functions are generally grouped and described in sections of books on doing math) and finally in the Section called "Manipulating Text with Expressions, Using the Access Text functions." Yes, a good index cross-referencing the words "parsing strings" and "text functions" would have been better, but I haven't found one reference book that has been that user-friendly to the experienced programmer who just isn't "experienced" using Access. At least the "Dummies" book is sufficiently well-organized, comprehensive and transparent to let me find out what I need to know!

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