Microsoft Office Access 2003: Comprehensive Concepts and Techniques

by Philip J. Pratt, Thomas J. Cashman, Gary B. Shelly

For the past three decades, the Shelly Cashman Series has effectively introduced computers to millions of students - consistently providing the highest quality, most up-to-date, and innovative materials in computer education. We are proud of the fact that our series of Microsoft Office 4.3, Microsoft Office 95, Microsoft Office 97, Microsoft Office 2000, and Microsoft Office XP textbooks have been the most widely used books in computer education...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0619200405
• ISBN13: 9780619200404
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Course Technology
• Length: 728 Pages
• Weight: 3.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 8.4" x 10.8"

Customer Reviews

Great Book

Great book. What can I say. It walks you through step by step, creating and editing access databases. It seems to be fairly thorough in its coverage. I would highly recommend it to anyone with little or no experience using Access or any other databases. I have little knowledge of SQL, I see where a lot of the concepts of this book apparently seem to be universal. Also I used this book with Access 2007 and although 2007 has the new Microsoft Ribbon interface, I was able to work through this book just fine. I would recommend this book.

Product as Advertised

Good Condition and quick delivery. Didn't end up using and was able to return without hassle

A Good Introduction

This is a good introduction to working with Access 2003. It is introductory in nature and can be successfully used by those with no background at all. The instructions a very detailed and are given step by step. This process is so basic, that it often becomes annoying and prompts thoughts such as, "surely, they realize I can do THAT by now". Even though it is annoying, that is also part of the strength of this tutorial. Another strength is its large, full color illustrations. They could even be called luxurious, especially when compared to the miniature black and white illustration which are so common but need an electron microscope to be of any use. Most steps are documented and the locations of needed buttons are usually highlighted. This is particularly helpful in a complex application like Access which contains a myriad of menus and buttons. The examples almost always work as described. The only place I encountered any problem was towards the end when dealing with writing VBA code. There I did run into one glitch. I am still unsure whether it was my typing of an actual problem. Retyping code is notorious for these types of errors but I also noticed that in this one instance, the screens did not always exactly match the illustrations. The examples build upon each other. Students use the same basic company level problem and keep building upon it. This reinforces earlier lessons. This book has a few cons as well. There is no disk. It assumes that an instructor will hand out all needed files. This may work in a college but it did not work for me at home. The book is weak on teaching actual database theory. It is mostly about how to use the program. Some topics are merely glossed over. Many to many relationships were only mentioned in passing. On the plus side, however, just about every topic is at least touched upon. This book was obviously designed to be used as a part of a formal class. I think it works extremely well in that situation. It was also fairly decent for self study.

Access 2003 Comprehensive Concepts and Techniques

We have been using this textbook for Database Management at Kaplan University. This is the most informative and well illustrated textbook I think I have ever seen. Every step, every new technique is clearly explained. This has made me fall in love with Database Management and Microsoft Access!! I have been going around my work offering to make databases for everybody I see!! This is absolutely 5 stars!!!!!!

Excellent

Great book, great information. I also enjoyed shopping with first class books. The book was delivered quickly and in excellent condition.