Access 2007: The Missing Manual

WOW! 10 stars at least! I had used other databases over the years (I used Quatro Pro for years, then they went away). I battled with Access and others for a few years. I finally got Access 2003 to 'kinda' work for me but I had no power to use it the way a database is meant to be used. Then when 2007 came along (I had to upgrade as I went to Windows 7) I became even more confused. Ribbon? Filtering? Macros? I WISH I HAD GOTTEN THIS BOOK YEARS AGO! After spending just a few hours of reading I now LOVE the ribbon (I used to swear at it) and each chapter I read gives me more power and ease of use. I now LOVE ACCESS, and am becoming a 'power user' thanks to this book. Other software reference book that I've used (the list is long), as well as friends and 'geeks,' have been difficult to follow and boring...[making it impossible to learn much]. Well this book is EXCITING and EASY to read. The author uses great examples, step by step guidelines and screen shots. This should be the book used by all schools and trainers for Microsoft Office 2007.Do yourself a favor, start at chapter 1, read ALL of the book (even if you THINK you know how to do something) & do the exercises. By the end of chapter 3 I realized my biggest problem was 3 or 4 simple (but VITAL) steps that I was always missing. PLUS, you'll quickly learn fast & easy shortcuts, multiple ways to do things based on your personal preference &/or needs.Thank You Mathew and all who contributed to creating this wonderful book, it is honestly one of the BEST investments I have made for my office as well as my hobbies. I thought I knew WORD & EXCEL, but I will be buying those books as well, as I'm sure they too will unlock many hidden tools that I can discover and fall in love with. I NOW ENJOY MY OFFICE AGAIN! I'm always surprising people with the speed that I can access tons of different data. Information is meaningless if you can't access it quickly & easily, if you get this book you will be 'smart' and on top of things quickly. I've even have friends who never saw the need or desire for any database software, now they can't live without it. I could go on, but I'll settle down now (I hope my JOY and ENTHUSIASM about this book has come across to you in this post.Buy and read this book (and keep it handy as a reference manual) you won't regret it! Seriously, Don Michaels.

I must say that this is really an excellent book. The "Missing Manual" title is quite fitting. This information should be provided with the product. It goes over nearly any basic task that you could want to accomplish in Access, even breifly delving into the land of VB programming and SQL Server Access Projects. Of course those topics don't go extremely in-depth because you could write another 700 page book on either of those, but it touches on them enough to give you a basic understanding and complete some basic tasks. So if you're looking for an Access VB programming book, or looking specifically for a manual on SQL Server based Access Projects, you'll probably want to look elsewhere because it's beyond the scope of this book. For that, I gave the book only four stars, but I'd have given 4.5 if I could.The book is written in a fun, easy to read manner which caters to both absolute beginners as well as some of the more versed Access users. I have used Access for several years and have created multiple databases via Access, and I have learned a lot from this book. I highly recommend it.

This is probably the best book I have read at introducing Access. Somewhat like the included manual, Building Applications with Microsoft Access 97, it covers 60% of what is needed to take Access to higher levels. But this differs in being an introductory book that omits much of the DAO code that is justifiably endorsed. McDonald's strength is in object-oriented programming and interfaces so this natural. A book by Allison Balter would provide 85% of what is needed, but she now only includes ADO code. Some of his summations are only entirely true if using linked tables or SQL Server Express, not unlinked tables. These are very useful for learning table design, queries, maintenance and relationships as well as providing for simple database management that the even developers may use. Although this takes the user from beginning to advanced topics, it lacks the middle that is provided by Balter. She says little about macros. As an experienced user I will continue to find useful information (compact and at a cheap price) and no book or website I have seen substitutes for experience.

This book contains a wealth of information about Access 2007. There are many hints and kinks that a seasoned Access programmer will find helpful. That is the reason for 4 stars ... BUT ...This is the first book by O'Reilly press that looked like a college student who failed English 101 was the editor. The use of contractions throughout the text is driving me batty. Especially when the writer AND the editor both get it wrong. For example, speaking of the importance of using a primary key field in order to avoid duplicate records ... "you can't have two identical records. (At worst, they'll [sic] be two almost identical records" ... ) "They" had no action on the records ... the correct contraction is "there'll," which is horrible grammar. For this I would have given 1 star.OK, enough picking at an otherwise good book. I am still reading the book and learning about the many tricks of Access 2007. However, I am almost ready to torch the book for poor readability, all for the sake of being 'familiar' with the readers. Skip it and write a technical book with proper grammar.

I started with the "Starters" edition, well where would you start? And now, I want to delve deeper.Unfortunately, having followed the "Starters" edition I now found that having bought the "Access 2007, The Missing Manual" I am now covering subjects that have been covered in the "Starters" edition, not to the same extent admittedly, but it does mean I am going over a lot of ground that the "Starters" edition covers.Decide how deeply you want to delve and then decide. For a general knowledge take the "Starters" edition but if you are deeply interested then take Access 2007, The Missing Manual.But not both!

This book is easy to read and follow and indeed it would be a good manual with the product. But it really is for beginners. If you have used Access before give this book a miss.

This is a great tool and been a great help when I've been into the software and hit any obstacles.

A big read, but so far, so good.

I'm only in receipt of this book, and from the few questions I had, have now been answered. Only time will tell if it can answer some of the other more 'complex' issues I still have. So four stars for now, perhaps five stars if it can achieve all my objectives. Still, I am the type of person to learn better if I were guided by a professional/experienced tutor than reading from a book. Oh, delivery was made in good time, and arrived in good condition.