Rating: 
Summary: Good book except for two things...
Review: 1. The included database was not completely functional. It looked like there were some bugs in it.2. A lot of space was devoted to explaining things, but I think some of that space should have been given to more code examples. A code snippet is sometimes worth a thousand words. Still, this book has lots of great ideas about how to deal with Access IF you are prepared to learn the basics (forms, VBA, algorithms) somewhere else. The naming conventions and application design principles are priceless. However, if you are starting out, I recommend buying this book after buying a simpler book such as John L. Visecas, Running Microsoft Access 97 or Robert Smith and David Sussman, Beginning Access 97 VBA Programming.
Rating: 
Summary: A Reference with Lasting Value
Review: Despite a shelf-full of newer books on MS Access and VBA, this is still the one I refer to the most. If you want to learn about developing Access applications in a business setting, Access 97 Expert Solutions is an essential tool, even if you use a newer version of Access. It's not for beginners; the book assumes that you are are a proficient user of Access and understand at least the basics about the VBA programming language. The first half of the work deals with the procedures for planning, designing, and documenting an application. A structured development process and useful documentation are both musts in a business setting. Leszynski's processes and documentation forms are an excellent fit for the Access environment. The document templates on the CD-ROM are quite useful. The system of naming conventions presented in this book has become an accepted standard. The second half of the work addresses application design issues. Compared with other Access "how-to" books, Leszynski's often takes a broader view. Contrasting this book with one like the Access Developer's Handbook (by Ken Getz, et al, and also highly recommended) is like comparing a meal planner with a cookbook. Leszynski gives you not only the code, but the overall plan for making the parts of your application work together towards a common strategy. This is one of the few technical books that it pays to read cover-to-cover, and one of the very few that are sufficiently well-written to make such a task endurable. For serious Access developers it is in a class by itself.
Rating:
Summary: Superb Book
Review: I found Mr Leszynski's book to be very well written and simple to understand and whilst I,m not certain his methodologies will catch on, this book is a step in the right direction. It will certainly encourage its readers to document programs they produce in a more thorough and logical manner.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good, but not for Begining Access Developers
Review: I found this book to be of tremendous value in defining my own method of building a design specification for a database project. While this is only part of what is presented, Mr. Leszynski's development Methods are what I use the most. The book tends to be a bit intellectual and is at times ponderous, but as it presents volumes of material, it is worth it. Mr. Leszynski is a noted expert in this field, and is perhaps the best known name (my apologies to Ken Getz & Paul Litwin ) The samples provided were applicable and of immediate use to me in my developments.In short, this book is for Advanced Access developers, but intermediate level users (like me) will still find it of use. John P. Reed, Metatronics, Ltd.
Rating:
Summary: Not very satisfied
Review: I really did not learn much from this book.
It contains many ideas , but they are either so simple I could have thought of them OR they are nothing new. The ideas on software development strategy is so generic that they could have appeared in a book on general development strategy.
But I am expecting something more specific to MS Access. I expect strategies specific for MS Access database development, not just generic ideas. The so-called Leszynski naming convention is not very helpful to me. I could have designed something more useful for myself. The so-called expert techniques on combo boxes , list boxes etc are nothing new, actually I have either learned them from other books OR I knew them myself already.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books on software development I've read
Review: I've lived with this book for about 2 years now and have come to the conclusion that it's the best Access book I've read. Don't be put off by the "Access 97" in the title. Firstly Access 2002 in it's fundamentals isn't all that different from 97 (In fact you can download ADO 2.7 from the Microsoft web site, create a reference to it in 97, and use all the new whizz-bang ADO stuff from within Access 97). The first half of the book deals with issues relating to the authors own application methodology - ie: the steps one needs to follow in order to develop a professional application. I found this section of the book to be invaluable. No abstruse academic nonsense here, just good solid practical advice from a developer who has worked at the coalface for years. The second half of the book is dedicated to the usual technical tips. This part of the book is great too - up there with Getz, Litwin, Scott Barker et al.This book attempts to cover the entire software development lifecycle from intial idea to technical implementation and does so brilliantly. I can't recommend it highly enough. Why a new edition hasn't been released is beyond me.
Rating:
Summary: Practical, Detailed, and Complete
Review: Most of the books I have bought on Access have given me 20-100 good pages, and two or three examples that I was able to use. In some cases, there were two or three ways to accomplish the same task, which leaves you wondering which is better and in what context. This book covered six different ways to pass a value to a form, when it is opened, and discusses the merits of each method. The samples are detailed, well documented, and show evidence of extensive experience by the author. Next to my Access Cookbook by Getz (O'Reilly) this is my favorite resource when looking for a solution to a real problem. Not for the beginners, for sure, but very useful to an intermediate or advanced programmer.
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST! BUY NOW ONLY ADVANCED USERS
Review: There are hundreds of Access books out there, from the "learn Access in 20 minutes" variety to the real power programming academic thesis type. This is the best book I've read on Access. However it's not for beginners. It won't take you step by step. It will give you many options on how to deal with a problem mentioning the pros and cons of each while recommending his firm's own approach. Once you're comfortable with Access and are ready to build serious applications for yourself or others you must read this book. The first chapters (420 pages)teach you great techniques about development in general, from naming conventions (this guy literally wrote the book on Access naming conventions!) to completing and deploying a solution. Even an experienced developer can benefit from these chapters. The rest of the chapters deal with expert techniques for all development aspects (e.g. creating tables and queries to forms, reports and client server issues). I started highlighting passages I found useful and now the book is really hard to read because of so much highlighter that I'm thinking about buying another! One of the best things about this book is the accompanying CD and the code listings since he includes an awesome amount of actual library functions that he uses in his practice and that will save you hundreds of hours of code. All the examples and the complete book are in the CD so you can experiment and really learn Access anywhere you go. Buy this book with your eyes closed. The only thing you'll regret is not being able to learn it by heart after day one! Marco V. Gutierrez, Costa Rica
Rating:
Summary: You MUST get this book if you're serious about Access 97
Review: There are tons of books about Microsoft Access, but if you're a serious developer, there are only a very few that offer wisdom you haven't seen before. Books by Ken Getz and Scott Barker have been on that short list; now you can add this great new book by Stan Leszynski. Stan's book has quite a lot of clearly-explained techniques and how-to's. He includes some great technical information on how to make the most of new features in Access 97. If this were all that the book offered, it would still be well worth the investment in dollars and reading effort. But Stan's new work includes something that just hasn't been available before -- a "framework", or overall approach, for developing in Access. This framework is a set of principles, guidelines, standards, and tools that make Access development quicker, more consistant, and error-free. I highly recommend this book for corporate developers, consultants, and anyone else who is (or wants to be) really serious about Access. Stephen Rosenbach
President, Maryland Access/Visual Basic Users Group
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This is an excellent book would definatley reccomend this book to anyone who is interested in devloping access databases.
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