Rating: 
Summary: Oh no, this is not worth the time to grope through!
Review: 1.This book was written using the beta software. So, often, the screen-shots are different from your display! Very confusing.2.O gosh, the writers (publisher) seemed to have rushed through this book. Mr Cassel & Ms Palmer, give us book buyers a break! We buy with the intention to learn. Not to be left confused and disappointed. 3.Honestly, I don't think this book is worth the papers it is printed on. Worst, if you can imagine the many hours unfortunate buyers will have to suffer to try to extract whatever value there is from this book! 5. SAMS, please refrain from rushing out such books. One day, you will find that no one will buy your publications for their inferior quality. Sigh! :>(
Rating: 
Summary: Written in a rush
Review: Access 2000 in 21 days was clearly written by two authors without the necessary care in producing a seamless document. The change in style can be noticed from Day 10 up. The first 9 chapters are fine, but from Day 10 perhaps too much was intended to be written in a puzzled manner. Not worth it! For someone with a serious learning objective the book falls extremelly short. Chapters 16 to 20 are a waste of energy. It is about time for authors and publishers to focus on real teaching instead of going after the big bucks! Paul S. Ferraz, CEO - Dedicated Solutions Inc.
Rating: 
Summary: Golly, I'm still confused on what Access can do ...
Review: Don't get me wrong, I'm an intermediate programmer with years of experience, but browsing through the pages of this book, I thought I could gain something. Boy, was I wrong ! After chapter five I stopped reading because the topics were not presented in a manner that something will still linger in your mind after browsing through the pages ! Boring is the word . I have read several other 21 days and 14 days books , I thought all sams publications have the same rich content. I regret I spent some of my hard earned money for this book, but in fairness to the author, this book is really for novice programmer with no experience at all , with the intent of entering the database programming world and not for seasoned ones.
Rating:
Summary: Access 2000 in 210 (yes, 210) Days
Review: Fully anticipating to learn the basics of Access 2000, I started reading this book the day it arrived. Having a decent knowledge of database concepts (gained during many painful years of military contract software use - Thanks ULLS-A), I expected to pick up on the topics fairly quickly. After reading the first few chapters, and working through the example database files (that's another story), I was somewhat confused. A lot of information was presented, but not in a thoughtfully organized manner (in my opinion). I had to reread the chapters twice to finally get the concepts straight in my mind. I do not recommend this book for anyone wishing to learn Access 2000 without any prior knowledge or experience with databases and database programs.
Rating:
Summary: Wha?
Review: Having a strong knowledge of Access, I decided to purchase this book because of its chapters on VBA and SQL. However, I realized after a while that with its unclear instructions and asking me to do things "if you want to" or "maybe you should..." made me quite unsure of what to do next. Many times I wasn't sure whether it was an instruction or a suggestion to try later. Is the author afraid to give me a clear-cut set of instructions for fear he might offend me? Come on! I'm trying to learn access and I'll be happy to do what you tell me. However, when I'm not sure I'm even given a set of instructions until the next section or the end of the chapter, that's a real problem. I am not pleased with this book AT ALL and wish I hadn't bought it. I recommend you PLEASE check out this author before you purchase his books. I for one am NOT HAPPY with this book!
Rating:
Summary: I want money back..
Review: I am a beginner of this program, and after a few hours I just gave up reading this book. Attached CD is read-only, while it tells me to input some data(hmm..can I do that??!). The book talks about some tables which "are in the CD", which aren't, no clear single line explanation of what the normalization is (read entire one page worth explanation, and I still don't have a clear idea what the definition is.)etc. Authors' habit of saying, "if it is necessary," "if you have some time," "if you're familiar with.." really bugs me.. - what is this? Are they too insecure to give readers an instruction?? I noticed it soon after I started reading the first chapter. I should have looked reviews here before purchasing this book. I have to say I abhor reading this book. I won't get another books from these authors.
Rating:
Summary: How to frustrate yourself in 21 days
Review: I am an intermediate Access developer who was looking for abook to fill in the gaps of my Access knowledge, such as how to createadvanced Reports and Queries. After all, the words are written on the title "... master Access 2000 in just 21 days". I will start off by saying this book shows that things are possible in Access, but does not go into explanation on how to do it. Throughout the book, this format is followed: 1. Here's a task for you to try 2. Follow these 20 steps, and don't worry, you don't need an explanation of any of these steps 3. Voila! You now have a working function/report. 4. Hope you learned something from this I have heard many good recommendations of the 'Learn in 21 days series', and this being my first book of that series, I would not recommend this. In these 21 days, you will get something done, but not learning or understanding how and why along the way. Instead of 1 star, I give this book 2 stars since it raised my confidence level when I closed the book in frustration and attempted through trial and error to figure out the problem and eventually solved it. I summarize this book as a 780 page reference manual with 10 pages of quality content.
Rating:
Summary: Unless you're a total novice: 21 Minutes worth of reading
Review: I bought this book as previous publications by SAM's have proved to be reasonably good but I was highly disappointed with this one. It would be acceptable if it were titled "Access 2000: An Overview" as it does have information that could be useful for absolute beginners. However, as it is severely lacking in depth, I think that it does not come anywhere living up to its title. I got less than 21 minutes worth of reading from the book. Skip it or wait for the Second Edition.
Rating: 
Summary: Teach Yourself Microsoft Access 2000 in 21 Days is great.
Review: I had MS Access on my computers for 4 years and could not figure out what to do with this application or how to learn it without going to school. Then I bought the Teach Yourself Access by Paul Cassel. With a disciplined routine of 5-6 hours perday and following the author's instructions line by line, I was able to design databases by the 10th day. I think Paul Cassel needs to be complimented for writing a logical, simple and very useful book. If in his latest edition he has eliminated some chapeters on Table design, then he should re-insert them. The primary goal of this book must always remain to take a total novice who is interested in data base design and in 21 days turn him/her into a programmer who is very comfortable with using MS Access. Two years ago this book did that for me in half the number of days. I thoroughly recommend this book to beginners. Saeed Anwar
Rating:
Summary: I was disappointed.
Review: I have used other books in Sam's Teach Yourself series and was satisfied. This disappointing book is likely based on a beta version of the software. I spent a too much time in the software help section looking for ways to do the book's step-by-step examples. My recommendation is wait until they publish an updated and corrected edition. Unfortunately, at this date, the number of "teach yourself" Access 2000 books is limited.
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