Microsoft Access 2002 Bible

All this book does is waffle on, giving pointless information about just about everything Access does. The descriptions of absolutely everything are far, far too longwinded to be helpful. I found myself skipping huge amounts of information because you just simply dont need it! As one of the other reviewers noted, this is a huge book to be covering such a small amount of what access is capable of.

Not only is it longwinded, but it has no user friendliness whatsoever, and it reads just like a stereotypical 'manual',boring and hard to follow.

There are many many more books out there that teach Access in a much more friendly, and not so wordy fasion. Save your cash, and buy one of those instead


Excellent comprehensive text   November 27, 2002
 7 out of 8 found this review helpful

A very good book. It starts with the basics and builds up to more complex techniques.

The section on Visual Basic is a bit brief however and you wonder how using a database wizard fits into one of the VB chapters but it does become clearer.

The CD included is not much more than a plug for the company that the author works for but bits are useful.

Forget Access For Dummies and texts like that because this covers all that and more! People wanting to get seriously into Visual Basic might want to look for a more specific text but generally excellent.


A perfect example of the virtually useless.   April 10, 2002
 23 out of 28 found this review helpful

Unless you're actually intending to supply a veterinary practice with its database, then this book is one to avoid. As a training volume, this confines itself to far too narrow an area for the majority of its audience. The constant use of a single example - the aforementioned vets' database - is of little help in understanding the myriad of applications to which access is capable. It's like buying a teach yourself woodwork book, only to discover that it confines itself to making a sideboard, and nothing else. Although I suppose to write a book of this length and yet still manage to cover such a tiny proportion of the subject at hand is in itself, quite an achievment.
So it fails as a training book, but what about as a reference volume? Sadly, while it has a comprehensive index, so few of the terms and tools are described in any detail that trying to find an answer to any question you may have about access is futile.
This is all the more annoying give the obvious knowledge that the author's possess. Knowledge which it seems they have decided to keep to themselves. Even the briefest search on any internet search site will yeild guides that are far shorter and yet vastly more informative than bible 2002.
The final failure of this book is its utter lack of any recognition of the shortcomings and bugs that access has in abundance. Outside of the instruction books that come with software, this has to be one of the most uncritical works I have read regarding any program. Not, I suspect unconnected with the authors' occupation as full time commercial access developers.
Ultimately, there are far better books available, both for training and reference.