Alison Balter's Mastering Microsoft Office Access 2003

by Alison Balter

What Alison s book offers over other books in that she is able to take a highly technical topic and present it in a manner that is easy to comprehend. It is a book that the reader will often want to read from cover to cover, but it can also act as an excellent reference. Readers of this book will learn:

Access 11 application development and real-world solutions to specific development and programming problems. Professional programming techniques...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0672325500
• ISBN13: 9780672325502
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Sams Publishing
• Length: 1464 Pages
• Weight: 4.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.2" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

The Bible of MS Access!!!

I bought this book about a year ago when I landed a job at which I am responsible for designing, creating, and administering various Access databases. I have used Access for about 4 years, so I thought that I was ready to tackle any task that was thrown my way - until the company started throwing advanced tasks my way. I immediately went out and bought Alison Balter's book. I scanned through the book for about 2 hours when I first bought it. I bookmarked several pages that I thought could help me out with my Access projects. The next day at work, I started to apply the information in this book immediately. I keep this book by my side at all times! I keep the book in my car to make sure that I never leave it at home by mistake. This isn't a beginner book (the user level on the back says "intermediate-advanced") so it would be good to have some Access knowledge before using this book. This book isn't a "hold your hand" book or a "step-by-step" book. It's a book that will take the knowledge of any intermediate-advanced Access user to the next level. What makes it even better is Alison herself. I was asked to create a report that uses a form to gather the criteria for the report. I was trying to utilize a technique that Alison showed in chapter 10 of the book ("Advanced Report Techniques"), but I didn't have all of the code because my son broke my CD. I e-mailed her and asked her if there was a place where I could download the files. She replied the same day, and sent all of the books CD content to me! I was able to use the chapter 10 files to get the report working properly. Thanks to Alison and her book (which I have used to do several neat and advanced things), I'm being viewed as an Access genius here at work. When/if my company upgrades to Access 2007, I will definitely upgrade to Alison Balter's Mastering Microsoft Office Access 2007. More-than-likely, I'll buy the book the same day! Thanks Alison!

As always, pertinent and readable

As to the reviewer who said that it is the same old material, it sort of follows that it would be the same old material since it is the same old Access. There are certain fundamental topics that must be covered in any comprehensive work on any application, and if that application doesn't change much from rev to rev, then there will be some repeated material. What is important is that as to 2003, this is about as comprehensive as it gets. If you haven't seen this book before, it is all new to you, and you will find everything from soup to nuts. I have purchased every Alison Balter book on Access from 2000 Desktop/Enterprise, to this current rev, and each volume is invaluable, depending on which rev I am working in. I would add that this is a great book for beginners since it takes advanced users into the realm of Access development with thorough and easy to understand coverage, and adds value to the skills of intermediate to advanced users in pretty much every topic. I find myself re-reading these books periodically to go back and pick up little bits that I might have forgotten, and I always find my development skills improve from these re-reads. This is THE book to have for Access development (and I have MANY Access development books.)

Get up to speed

If you're the type of person who's constantly asking your computer-savvy kid for assistance, this is not the book for you. On the other hand, if you are that computer-savvy kid, this book will get you up to speed with Access. I've been using relational databases for a very long time, but I never really used Access. Sure, I created a few small Access databases for some VB programs. But that's about as far as I ever got with Access. Then I recently wanted to create a database application for my own personal use, and I thought: "why not use Access?" Well, I quickly found out that not everything in Access is all that obvious to an old database pro. But, Ms. Balter's book helped me to get going. She has a knack for just touching on the essential basics and then covering the more advanced topics in greater detail. The book is very well organized. It's easy to find what you're looking for. But it's also organized in the sense that, if you think you know something, you can safely skip that chapter without feeling as if you missed something important in the next. And for a book with some 1400 pages, that's pretty important. Especially if your goal is to finish a project and not to read a five pound book.

Great book for intermediate to advanced user

I have read many intermediate to advanced books on Access and this book beats them all. Alison Balter is focused on taking the intermediate Access programer and bringing them to the advanced level. Lots of helpful programming tips, examples and a CD with the code to help you out. Need I say more this is a great book.

Still a great book

Previous reviewers mentioned that there is not much new in this book. That's true, BUT that's because Access 2003 is NOT a major upgrade from previous editions, despite what Microsoft wants us to believe.This is still a great book and the quality of the print and paper is excellent in my copy of the book.If you use Access 2003 and you don't have Alison's 2002 book, buy this one. You won't be disappointed.