Rating: 
Summary: Pulls you up by the boot straps....
Review: ... but not enough for the exam.This book is great for a relatively inexperienced programmer to quickly expand their knowledge with examples. Its biggest flaw is that it really is not sufficient, on its own, to prepare for the exam certification. The cover states "Everything you need to pass Microsoft's Visual Basic 6 Certification Exam". The "blurb" on the cover is, in my opinion, overly ambitious and the contents do not fully realise this ambition. If you are interested in the Microsoft Certification, then this book is a useful supplement only. You will need to have another serious reference with this "guide" serving as backup. If you are inexperienced and starting a new job as a VB programmer this is an excellent way to rapidly ramp up your knowledge and experience and a very useful reference. However, once you are up to speed and want to take your knowledge to the next level, even just for certification, you will then see the limitations of this "All in one" book. THE BOTTOM LINE - if you want it to rapidly expand your basic VB programming experience this performs well, however, if you do want a complete "VB Certification" book to prepare you for the MCP's, this is DEFINITELY NOT the book for you unless you want it to supplement your study of another book/course.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: Covers a wide range of topics and not baby-sits reader with small and obvious details. Could have earn five stars if cover more on database access. I have to buy a separate book just for database.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: covers a wide range of topics and not baby-sits reader with small and obvious details. Could have earn five stars if cover more on database access. I have to buy a separate book just for database.
Rating:
Summary: Passed the test...
Review: I found the book to be a satisfactory study guide, with two caveats. First, it should have more info on MTS (this is heavily tested on the Distributed Exam). Second, it should have more info on the Package and Deployment Wizard (this is heavily tested on the Desktop exam) Bottom Line: I passed BOTH VB6 exams (on the same day) after reading this book and doing no other studying. I didn't bother doing the interactive examples (I hadn't even installed VB6 on my PC when I took the exams). Background: I have 2 years experience developing enterprise applications with VB. Note that I had already attained VB5 certification before I took the VB6 exams. Complaint: Don't bash books for typos, poor examples, or bad design if you can't even structure your complaint using proper grammar, complete sentences, etc. It's a disgrace to our profession and does little to demonstrate your ability to judge the offending material. You know who you are.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice try, but a bit sloppy
Review: I have read the book from cover to cover, and am aiming for VB6 certification in both desktop and distributed subject areas. I did all the exercises and quite a few of the "check it out" sections. All in all I think the approach is a good one - you learn by doing. But, as usual with certification guides, it looks to have been rushed and contains some careless errors and lots of typos (especially in later chapters...!) The authors really go off the deep end in chapter 21, taking us through how to create a VB add-in, whereas the chapter is supposed to discuss using the visual component manager (a required study area for the desktop cert. exam). The answers for Chapter 13 were completely wrong. This book gives you something to work with, but I feel that it will need to be supplemented. To all those people who are flaming this book - how about suggesting a better alternative if you've found one? Thanks, -Lou
Rating: 
Summary: Good prep...
Review: I think it was very well written, although not perfect. It is well designed and set out in a logical order.
Rating: 
Summary: Good companion reference for exam prep
Review: The only materials I used to prep for the VB6 Distributed exam was Trancender's VB6 simulation exams - and this book. I had already been using VB for about 2 years and this is the only "VB6" book that I own that is not MTS specific. After taking some sample tests I beefed up on any "weak" areas using this book. It is great for finding short, hands-on examples of projects that will teach you exam objectives but not of much use for the experienced VB programmer who wants a more in-depth or advanced resource.
Rating:
Summary: A great technology book, a great author
Review: This book ROCKS! And The Author ROCKS! A well presened, well written book on Dan Mezick's part. Its exercises and demonstrations laid a firm foundation in the fundamentals of Visual Basic. Never a dull moment, This book written by the most experienced, entertaining, captivating authors in the technology market. The only thing that comes even close to this book is seeing Mezick presenting live, but thats a scary proposition in it self!
Rating:
Summary: A great technology book, a great author
Review: This book ROCKS! And The Author ROCKS! A well presened, well written book on Dan Mezick's part. Its exercises and demonstrations laid a firm foundation in the fundamentals of Visual Basic. Never a dull moment, This book written by the most experienced, entertaining, captivating authors in the technology market. The only thing that comes even close to this book is seeing Mezick presenting live, but thats a scary proposition in it self!
Rating:
Summary: Not the whole ball of wax.
Review: Want to get certified. This can't be your only source and hope to pass. Mixing the 175&176 subjects is confusing for study but all in all it provides good coverage of most subject matter included on the test. Sample test is not a good reflection of the actual exam so WATCH OUT. If you want to pass the certs get this book (to start with), a certified practice exam and read ALOT of the MSDN information.
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