general

This book covers all the basics of Access in a format that is easy to understand. It does require familiarity with Windows, but most people looking for this level of understanding in Access have that already. The CDRom files makes the lessons easy and informative. It is written for XP, but I have 2000 Professional, and with a few exceptions, I could do all the lessons in the book. If you are going to use the book for a different version than XP, though, you really have to have a working knowledge of Access already. All in all, a good resource that I believe will serve me well in the future as a reference book.

This book uses a bogus garden store example to teach you how to go through various functions in Access. This book is great if you have never used Access before. However, if you are trying to set-up a database for more specific needs/functionality, I don't think step-by-step gives you enough information to accomplish this goal. After I read this book cover to cover and completing all of the exercises, I was able to create a basic (simple) database. If that is all you want to do, this book is perfect. The major problem I had with this selection, was there is not enough explaination as to why I was doing something. I could easily follow the concise step by step instructions and accomplish what they were telling me to do in the sample database, but there was no explaiation as to what each step I was performing was accomplishing. Now that I have created a simple basic database, I need another book to create calculations, and basically use the database the way I need to.

Step-by-step was great for teaching me the absolute basics, but I think I would have done better by getting a different book that could take me beyond that. If I had, I probably could have actually acomplished what I need to to with Access. Instead, I am back again buying another book.

First time reading a book about Access by MicrosoftPress, I dont have any problems running the examples from the CD. I have used Windows 98. Very well written, very professional, the way books about software programming should be written, not trying to make things difficult or showing off knowledge beyond the task it aims. All the examples use Access database, and the SQL softwares are not mentioned, as they are in most books about Access, whose authors couldn't resist to run an Access Form on a SQL database.