Rating: 
Summary: Useful "mid-level" reference
Review: I am not an experienced Microsoft Access user, but certainly beyond just the basics. I needed something to give me a jumpstart in developing a particular application we needed. This book had several good reviews and seemed appropriate for my level and needs.At first I was daunted by its thick size and text-heavy nature. I wasn't sure "where to start." But, once I focused in on the few chapters I really needed to get me going, I sat down with a highlighter and a good desk lamp, and have found it to be very useful! I have yet to put my new knowledge to work, but I am more confident already. I can't compare this book to any others, but I have been pleased with the purchase.
Rating: 
Summary: Wish I'd had this book a few months ago!
Review: I am several chapters into this book, and so far the biggest benefit to me has been the book's ability to fill in the gaps of my current Access knowledge. If I knew little or nothing about Access, this wouldn't be the book I'd want to start with, but now that I'm on the edge between Novice and Intermediate, this book seems to be the perfect tool to get me where I need to go. Unlike a tutorial, this book covers topics one by one, and in a good amount of detail. I think this will be of great use to me when I need to use the book as a reference. I especially appreciate the author's ability to explain a concept and then use examples to help the reader understand the concept. I recommend this book to anyone who already has some knowledge of Access and is looking for an excellent, easy-to-use reference on the topic.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: I bought this book when I started to work on an Access application and found it is very helpful. This book targets toward the intermediate to advanced developers. It provides with many pratical examples and code. We can easily port the code into our applications. The book not only covers the basic and advanced tables, forms, queries, and reports, but also covers VBA, Windows API, security, maintenance and distribution. After reading this book, I became more masterful at Access development.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for the MS Access dilettante!
Review: I bought this book when my boss appointed me to design a simple database to interface with legacy db systems. I had no design experience and a few weeks' of coursework nearly five years ago. Although I purchased this book based upon reviews here ..., I soon realized that this book is not for the database lightweight. This book is clearly an intermediate text. If I didn't have the preliminary background playing around with Access I could have never even gotten started with the book. I gave it a 2 only b/c I am assuming that some expert found this material enlightening. I could have gotten better mileage using it for firewood kindling.
Rating:
Summary: Not for the MS Access dilettante!
Review: I bought this book when my boss appointed me to design a simple database to interface with legacy db systems. I had no design experience and a few weeks' of coursework nearly five years ago. Although I purchased this book based upon reviews here ..., I soon realized that this book is not for the database lightweight. This book is clearly an intermediate text. If I didn't have the preliminary background playing around with Access I could have never even gotten started with the book. I gave it a 2 only b/c I am assuming that some expert found this material enlightening. I could have gotten better mileage using it for firewood kindling.
Rating:
Summary: marvelous
Review: I can't imagine a better exposition of Access 2000. Absolutely comprehensive, clear and very easy to follow and learn from. Comes with a CD copiously filled with highly illustrative example databases. DAO as compared with ADO is outlined very clearly. Extensive treatment is given to security issues. You'll also find a lot of cool VBA tips and tricks. One source of particular enjoyment was the introduction to custom collections, which can be a very useful variant to array processing, for those times when table usage isn't practical or relevant.
Rating: 
Summary: not that good
Review: i found the book jumps all over the place it doesn't give you a project to complete with the advice she is offering some properties are of some use but i find this just plain and very ordinary book that i dont use much.
Rating:
Summary: I got Prompt repy from the Author and it was very helpful.
Review: I got the book with the CDROM. All the examples in the book are in the CDROM. But I did not know know to copy the databases, because it was "read only" I wrote to the Author Alison Balter. Even though it was 11 pm in the night, I got a reply immediately!! Here is her reply. May be it will be of help to some of you who want to copy the databases into your hard drive.
Hi Percy,
All files are read-only when you copy them from a CD-ROM (no way to control that). After copying the files to your hard drive, you simply right-click the files in Explorer, go to Properties, and uncheck the read-only attribute."
Hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Alison
"
Rating:
Summary: EXTREMELY helpful -- fills a niche!
Review: I had read many introductory works on Access 2000, and I had developed a (relatively) simple relational database -- but the beginners' books were mostly geared to users, and the developers' books were too advanced for me to jump straight into. Like another reviewer, I was having a great deal of trouble finding a book for intermediate developers and then I found THIS! Wonderful! Just what I needed! Alison writes well, knows her stuff, and her book bridges a gap that none other does. One must know Access fairly well, and one must already be somewhat familiar with VBA programming (or programming in general), but if those statements describe you and if you are not quite ready for the 2-vol. Developers' Handbook by Getz, et al, look no further. I recommend this book very, very highly to all intermediate A2K developers. It is truly a MUST HAVE reference! Thank you, thank you Alison!
Rating:
Summary: Mastering Microsoft Access 2000 development
Review: I have purchased just about every single Access book on the market in the pass five years. Alison Balter's Access 2000 development is the best book for client/server programming using Access 2000 as the front-end and SQL Server as the back-end.
I have experience in building large multi-user applicatoins in other platforms, and was looking for a book that would show me how to do it in ACCESS 2000 and SQL Server. This is the book.
Chapters 16-23 in PART III of the book are the best I've seem in any book describing concepts in designing and coding a large client/server system.
The other two books I would highly recommend for ACCESS developers are ACCESS 2000 Developer's Handbook Volume 1 & 2 by Litwin, Gilbert, and Getz.
The above books are not for beginning programmers but are for ACCESS developers.
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