Product Description

Not a reference book, and not a tutorial either, the new second edition of the highly regarded Access Cookbook is an uncommonly useful collection of solutions to problems that Access users and developers are likely to face as they attempt to build increasingly complex applications. Although using any single "recipe" in the book will more than pay back the cost of the book in terms of both hours saved and frustration thwarted, Access Cookbook, Second Edition is much more than a handy assortment of cut-and-paste code. Each of the "recipes" examine a particular problem--problems that commonly occur when you push the upper limits of Access, or ones that are likely to trip up a developer attempting to design a more elegant Access application--even some things you never knew Access could do. The authors then, in a clear, accessible, step-by-step style, present the problems' solution. Following each "recipe" are insights on how Access works, potential pitfalls, interesting programming techniques that are used in the solution, and how and why the solution works, so you can adapt the problem-solving techniques to other similar situations. Fully updated for Access 2003, Access Cookbook, Second Edition is also one of the first books to thoroughly explore new support for .NET managed code and XML. All of the practical, real-world examples have been tested for compatibility with Access 2003, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. This updated new edition also covers Access and SharePoint, Access and SmartTags, Access and .NET; and Access and XML. Access power users and programmers at all levels, from the relatively inexperienced to the most sophisticated, will rely on the Access Cookbook for quick solutions to gnarly problems. With a dog-eared copy of Access Cookbook at your side, you can spend your time and energy where it matters most: working on the interesting facets of your Access application, not just the time-consuming ones.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #272527 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 840 pages

Donna Lamb, St. Louis Visual Basic User's Group, March 2002
The Access Cookbook is an excellent addition to any
Microsoft Access developer's library.

Linda Roeder, Personal Web Pages, About.com
Even a beginner, with no programming experience, can learn to program using this book.

Sam Holden, Computer Science Undergraduate Society, May 2002
… The Access Cookbook contains a lot of useful material. And it isn't hidden amongst the dross as in many books about software.......

Customer Reviews

Accessible and useful
I was looking for more than just a programming guide – I wanted something which would show me how to make the most of MS Access. This is a really well written book, with some excellent examples of the sorts of practical things that you’ll want to be able to do once you get into programming Access.

Each recipe is broken down into Problem, Solution and Discussion. Further more, the accompanying CD contains all the code in the examples and then some. The “Problems” are always pertinent, and really are the sorts of things you want to be able to do. The solutions are elegant but never overly fancy or complex. Hey – you can actually understand the code! The discussions chat about how it all works, some point out other areas which the techniques might be useful in, or expand the solutions. The book is divided in sections such as Queries, Forms, Reports, Distributing Applications, Printing, Data etc with some of the later chapters looking at stuff like Data Access Pages (DAP), SQL Server Data and the Windows API.

Getz, Litwin and Baron never lose sight of the intended readership – people who want to improve their MS Access skills. They never talk down to their readers, and they don’t assume an unreasonable level of competence.

Thoroughly recommend this book for IT professionals, or people interested in home programming.

Some really great tips
Some really good coverage of some of the more esoteric things you might want to do with Microsoft Access. The book is really well written and is easy to follow. There are loads of ideas in the book as well - yes, you can copy the stuff if you want, but the ideas this book generates can set your applications in Access apart.

Thoroughly recommend this one

OK, not terrific
I know that the 'Cookbook' series from O'Reilly tends to be heavy on bells and whistles and light on explanations, and the Access Cookbook is no different.

It makes Access dance in interesting ways, for sure...but despite having many unique problems to solve using Access, I found that the book simply didn't show me much of anything revolutionary. I did find that modifying some of the code allowed me to take shortcuts, but my problem with the examples is that they were not explained adequately, making them more difficult to adapt for the beginning/intermediate programmer than they would have been if more effort had been put into explaining what was going on.

Having said that, there are far worse Access books on the market than this one...and I found that the edition I use works on every version of Access that we have in the building, even Access 97, which is pretty impressive.