New Perspectives on Applications Development in Microsoft Access - Advanced

Rating:
Summary: I am more confused then when I started.
Review: I often have no idea what the authors are talking about. They seem to jump from one thing to the next without any reason and without defining things. If I want to pass the class I am taking I will have to buy another text book to understand this subject. This book is a disappointment!

Rating:
Summary: Authors do not understand database systems themselves!
Review: I was shocked at the horrendous content and arrangement of this book. Normally speaking, the New Perspectives and/or Course Technology books are very informative and flow in a manner by which most people can learn. It seems to me that the authors wrote down "Access words", threw them up in the air, stood back while those words affixed themselves to pages, and then called those pages a book. The saving grace for students is that many colleges are now teaching Access 2000. Too bad that I am forced to give this book as good a rating as one star, but there is no lower rating available.

Rating:
Summary: I Agree With The Others - Terrible Book - Big Disappointment
Review: I was shocked at the horrendous content and arrangement of this book. Normally speaking, the New Perspectives and/or Course Technology books are very informative and flow in a manner by which most people can learn. It seems to me that the authors wrote down "Access words", threw them up in the air, stood back while those words affixed themselves to pages, and then called those pages a book. The saving grace for students is that many colleges are now teaching Access 2000. Too bad that I am forced to give this book as good a rating as one star, but there is no lower rating available.

Rating:
Summary: Outside research a definite must with this one!
Review: If endeavoring to learn Access from a development perspective, this book is definitely NOT the one you want to start with. As another reader notes, it simply throws out information from someone who is already an 'expert'. The first clue of trouble is the introductory example. The design style is atrocious; the program flow unfathomable; the usefulness questionable. And it goes down hill from there. At the very least, one should be well versed in Visual Basic and have thoroughly explored the Access help file documents before even attempting to work through this text. For the beginner, it can be nothing but a frustrating experience. For the experienced programmer - and especially so for one disciplined in structured design - it's a spaghetti bowl of obscure code, forms, queries, tables - all of which appear to lack any continuity. For educators, this book is only acceptable if you want to make your student's life more difficult than it already is and yours an adventure in crisis management as you endeavor to explain what the author never bothers to. To add insult to injury, the questions provided are of only minimal help in assisting students grasp the concepts and provide no help in verifying the answers except for instructor feedback when assignments are returned to students. Of all the programming text that I have read, this is of the worst. On the other hand, if your are always familiar with Access and other programming systems, it offers some useful concepts though it is hardly worth the asking price for the book. In this one case at least, the documentation that comes with Access if far superior to the information provided in this after market book.

Rating:
Summary: Wretched, confusing, overwritten and under-designed hash
Review: Instructors: Don't let your students have this book! It is very different from the usual Course Technology books. - Immensely complicated continuing example presented without understanding - Dense prose - Topics presented far in advance of their use - No explanation of the big picture--what is important, and why - Mythical supervisors continually telling us what to do, but giving little orientation.

Rating:
Summary: Authors do not understand database systems themselves!
Review: Neither author seems to understand database systems. I think both author's are professors who have never had a real job in their lifes.

Rating:
Summary: there are far better ways to learn Access and VBA
Review: This book was a textbook for an MIS class I took in college. There are far better ways to learn Access and VBA than by using this book. It does an ok job of showing you the basics, but it lacks technical explanations and doesn't help the student draw conclusions or make connections to other application development concepts. Instructors should stay away from this book unless they can fill in the gaps left by the authors!

Rating:
Summary: there are far better ways to learn Access and VBA
Review: This book was a textbook for an MIS class I took in college. There are far better ways to learn Access and VBA than by using this book. It does an ok job of showing you the basics, but it lacks technical explanations and doesn't help the student draw conclusions or make connections to other application development concepts. Instructors should stay away from this book unless they can fill in the gaps left by the authors!

Rating:
Summary: If you want to know, this is the book
Review: This is one of the best Access books I've seen. For those starting out to the more experienced, it is well worth the money.