Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Office Access 2003

Sooo much better than the text I tried first (Idiot's Guide to Access). The entire book is much more simplified. TRULY a beginner's guide.

I am a doctor and I have been reading various books on access. I realise that access is a very complicated application development database program. It is easy to come to gripes with word, excel and for a non IT person like me, it is very easy to get going with these programs soon. But to do justice to access for your own needs, it has taken me a lot of time to get going and I have lot of way to go yet. But this book gives you the confidence and a grip on the subjet for a beginner and the authors rightly put it on their cover page. 'ABSOLUTELY NO PRIOR ACCESS EXPERIENCE NECESSARY' I would heartily recommend this book for all novices who have no knowledge of access and want to make simple databases of their own. Dr Alok Modi MD

Recently I had to pick up Access very quickly since the temp assignment I got was nothing but. After spending nearly half an hour comparing Access books in a local bookstore I decided to get this one and the Microsoft official guide. While the Microsoft guide I plan on returning, this book has been a gem and truly got me up to speed from knowing nothing at all. I skimmed through the first 100 pages in about an hour, referencing the computer in front of me to see what went where, and then the next day I was able with the book's help to design a few reports and a rudimentary database for my boss. The next day forms, more reports, queries, and relationships were added into the mix and I've now, about a week later, made it through most of the book and have a real database up and running.What I like about this book is that it's very well laid out, especially when I compare it to the Microsoft guide. I had little or no problem jumping between chapters to locate the information I was looking for, and the techniques they work through, for the most part, furnished me with everything I've needed to do. While it's called an Absolute Beginner's Guide, it doesn't pull punches in terms of watering down the material or in unnecessary explanations.If you don't know anything about Access and need to get up to speed quickly, this is the book you want. The only thing I wished that it included was stuff about setting up security and permissions, but other than that, I think this is a great buy.