Microsoft Access has the steepest learning curve of all the Microsoft Office applications. Its basic functions aren't really intuitive, and users typically need to do some programming as part of their first Access project. For those reasons, Access is the Office application for which Office users--even experienced, highly competent ones--tend to need help learning.
Alison Balter's Mastering Microsoft Access 2003 is a new addition to the shelf of Access manuals, and it's one of the best. Balter does a great job of helping a novice Access user (someone who can open a database and edit fields, but can do little more) become an accomplished user. In other words, this book teaches Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming as it applies to Access. The word `Mastering` is appropriate in its title.
Balter's basic approach is to introduce a concept (say, the Implements keyword or ADO Database objects) and quickly explain its purpose with prose, then provide an example of how the concept works in practice. Which is to say, she provides a code sample. Because of this strategy, almost every page of this book has code on it. However, the author appears to have made a conscious effort to keep her code snippets short and easily comprehensible. Long, difficult-to-trace listings that span multiple pages are thankfully absent. Balter also does a good job of illustrating the Access development environment, including many screen shots of Access at work and of the applications that result from her code. This is a detailed, carefully considered book that will make sense to all but the most inexperienced Access users. --David Wall
Topics covered: How to write applications with Microsoft Access 2003. Noteworthy coverage deals with the Access way of handling object orientation, clever form-design strategies, and scores of techniques for performing various procedures on databases. Security coverage is good, too.
User review
Review of Alison Balter's Mastering Microsoft Office Access 2003
It meets my needs for now. The book is laid out well and easy to understand. Not much engineerese there. I highly recommend it.
User review
SOO much info,,
This book alone has it all. I've been recognized multiple times by the databases I have created or improved by utilizing this book. I know very little about Visual Basic and still do :-) Access for dummies is what this book should be titled because from the day I started reading, I was creating useful databases! Awsome book for beginners!
User review
Disappointed
Is not comprehensive enough to figure out what to do with Access, for example, creating a report from more than one table. Also, the index is not very useful, but maybe because there is not enough thorough content in the book to make a good index. In my opinion, Ms. Balter attempts to put too many topics in one book, but without enough depth to make it useful. It took me 1 minute of searching online to find the answer I needed that hours of poring over through the book left me empty.
User review
Best overview of Access
I figured out the basic structure of Access (basic Tables, Queries, Forms, Macros) from the online Help files (not including the VBA and ActiveX and linking to outside data sources and stuff). Then I went to Amazon and looked for another text and bought Getz, Litwin and Gilbert. When I first got it, I didn't understand it. So I went to a local store and browsed through the books on the shelf and decided on this one. It seemed to be at about my level -- 1/3 to 1/2 of it I already knew. And having now worked with it for a few weeks, I find it to be quite good. Two other people in the office started by borrowing my Getz, and then borrowed Balter instead for the same reason. Things are pretty easy to look up in it if you're not the type to read these things cover to cover. She covers everything clearly once (not 47 times), and you can find where that place is. She doesn't assume you know what ActiveX and ADO vs. DAO are. And there are a fair number of solutions to common needs which don't have obvious solutions,,.
User review
The Bible of MS Access!!!
I bought this book about a year ago when I landed a job at which I am responsible for designing, creating, and administering various Access databases. I have used Access for about 4 years, so I thought that I was ready to tackle any task that was thrown my way - until the company started throwing advanced tasks my way. I immediately went out and bought Alison Balter's book. I scanned through the book for about 2 hours when I first bought it. I bookmarked several pages that I thought could help me out with my Access projects. The next day at work, I started to apply the information in this book immediately. I keep this book by my side at all times! I keep the book in my car to make sure that I never leave it at home by mistake. This isn't a beginner book (the user level on the back says `intermediate-advanced`) so it would be good to have some Access knowledge before using this book. This book isn't a `hold your hand` book or a `step-by-step` book. It's a book that will take the knowledge of any intermediate-advanced Access user to the next level. What makes it even better is Alison herself. I was asked to create a report that uses a form to gather the criteria for the report. I was trying to utilize a technique that Alison showed in chapter 10 of the book (`Advanced Report Techniques`), but I didn't have all of the code because my son broke my CD. I e-mailed her and asked her if there was a place where I could download the files. She replied the same day, and sent all of the books CD content to me! I was able to use the chapter 10 files to get the report working properly. Thanks to Alison and her book (which I have used to do several neat and advanced things), I'm being viewed as an Access genius here at work. When/if my company upgrades to Access 2007, I will definitely upgrade to Alison Balter's Mastering Microsoft Office Access 2007. More-than-likely, I'll buy the book the same day! Thanks Alison!
