[.ca] Microsoft Access 2000 Bible (ISBN 0764532863)

From Amazon.com:
They say information wants to be free, and you can be its liberator by using the Microsoft Access 2000 Bible. Written to bring all levels of users up to the first steps of advanced use, it's as clear as a tutorial and as comprehensive as a reference can be. It even includes a 32-page "Quick Start" guide for newbies who want to get up and running quickly. By combining screenshots with text in just the right proportions, it appeals to both visual and verbal learners and should pose no problems in training. It covers the basics of use and design, advanced features like action queries and subforms, and the use of macros and Visual Basic for Applications to fine-tune your data solutions. The Bible makes learning easy by using examples at every step to ensure hands-on learning. The enclosed CD-ROM contains all the files you'll need for learning (just add Access!), as well as piles of free and demo software like business forms, Check Writer 2000, and WinZip. So whether you're a bright novice who wants to learn more or an advanced user who needs to learn how Access 2000 differs from previous and competing database applications, the Microsoft Access 2000 Bible will help you unlock the secrets and let your information run free. --Rob Lightner

Uninspired:
I'm not very impressed with this book. This was my first Access book and it seemed like a good book at the time. When I started using this in conjunction with my own database development, I found it lacking. It comes with a pet shop database and all of the examples and discussion center around that. Which I suppose seems to make sense. However, that construct is easy for the authors to create, yet gives us readers an extra "layer" to unravel before we can adapt a concept to our own work. Time and time again I have reached a point in my database development where I needed to figure out how to do something. For example, right now I want to read up on splitting a database. So I flipped to that section, however there is NOTHING in the section that I can find useful. In particular, I want to know how to manage linked tables. So let's say I split a database, and put a database into production for a client. Further let's say that I add a form or report to the front end later and email the changed front end to the client. How do I handle that scenario? This book convers no such "real-world" actions, which is one reason why this book lacks, in my opinion. In addition, the forms and reports that exist in the database are incredibly uninspired and simplistic. For example, check out Figure 19-7 (Chapter 19). It looks like something a child would put together. Or take a look at Figure 16-16, which is a terrible GUI. While reading though this, I felt uninspired. This book verbosely describes concepts that are better explained with real-life examples. It seems more focused on a "widget" rather than something I can relate to. The database looks "cartooney" and unbelievable, constantly requiring me to translate the juvenile examples to something meaningful. The list goes on and on. As an alternative, I would consider Access 2000 - The Complete Reference by Osborne Press (Author: Virginia Anderson). It is a much better reference (I need an answer quick), as well as a "reader" (Read the chapter on using Forms and pleasantly stumble across the sequence of Form_Events that Access exposes).

Not solution oriented enough:
I've been using this for a few weeks and like the accompanying CD which allows you to search the entire book easily. What I don't like is that too often I found myself struggling to find solutions that existed but were not documented. Like what do you do when you've set up a report and want to add a field that's not on the Field List. The trick is to go back and expand the query the report is based on to include that field but you won't find that in here. Instead you might (as I did) struggle with Text Boxes that allow you to build expressions based on the field you want, but you come up with an error message. Also they are so proud of their sample database that you find yourself having to go into it all the time to understand their explanations. I find myself, instead, turning to Access's online help for much of what I should find more nicely explained in this book, both with and without the examples.

No structure at all:
There's something strange about this Bible series. I already bought quite a few books of this series. They are very attractive by their looks, usually very thick and most of the time a bit disappointing. This one really is. I have rarely seen a computer book that is so badly structured as this one, I really do not find my way in it. Not the book to choose if you want to learn access, not even good as a reference book, no structure, no depth. I really wonder why it is so successful...

Good for Newbies, Good reference for old hands:
Great for learning the basics of relational database design and the basic access object design and interaction. It is well written and the layout makes it an excellent reference book. If you are looking for a book that will help you to create a workable application from little or no knowledge of databases this is the best that I've seen. The sections on ADO and VBA however do not contain enogh info on the basic Architecture of Access and Objects to make it useful to the beginner and are too sketchy to be of any real use to advance users or developers.

A waste of money:
This book is so riddled with errors, I can't believe it was published. Bad grammar, mislabled pictures, erroneous statements -- you name it. Wiley should be embarrassed to have put out a book this shabby.