I'll keep this brief, as my title says it all. I have been developing access applications on a professional level for many years. Have several applications that large companies use to run there business. This cookbook has helped me in more ways then I can count. I wish I could find more like it. I use it just as a cookbook. Look thru to find a similiar situation that I am trying to solve. The examples are written very well. The code is very exact and on the money. While most of the examples listed are not always exactly like what I'm trying to solve, it definitely gets the creative juices flowing on how to solve my problem.



The other good things, there are several useful "tips" that you can use to implement in many of your applications that will help the users have a better experience.



Definitely a must have if you wish to write serious applications.

I'll keep this brief, as my title says it all. I have been developing access applications on a professional level for many years. Have several applications that large companies use to run there business. This cookbook has helped me in more ways then I can count. I wish I could find more like it. I use it just as a cookbook. Look thru to find a similiar situation that I am trying to solve. The examples are written very well. The code is very exact and on the money. While most of the examples listed are not always exactly like what I'm trying to solve, it definitely gets the creative juices flowing on how to solve my problem.

The other good things, there are several useful "tips" that you can use to implement in many of your applications that will help the users have a better experience.

Definitely a must have if you wish to write serious applications.

I'll keep this brief, as my title says it all. I have been developing access applications on a professional level for many years. Have several applications that large companies use to run there business. This cookbook has helped me in more ways then I can count. I wish I could find more like it. I use it just as a cookbook. Look thru to find a similiar situation that I am trying to solve. The examples are written very well. The code is very exact and on the money. While most of the examples listed are not always exactly like what I'm trying to solve, it definitely gets the creative juices flowing on how to solve my problem.

The other good things, there are several useful "tips" that you can use to implement in many of your applications that will help the users have a better experience.

Definitely a must have if you wish to write serious applications.

The Access Developer's Handbook Set (search ISBN: 0782140114) and in particular, Volume 1: Desktop Edition (search ISBN: 0782123708) is my definitive resource to approximately 4 years of Access development. I've got more stickies and highlights in this set than all other Access books combined. So when I came across the Access cookbook and realized that the same two indispensible authors (Getz & Litwin) put together a resource of Access developer solutions, I had to have it.

This book has not let me down. It is certainly geared towards the intermediate to advanced Access professional developers who already understand the basics of Access and more importantly, who also understand the shortcomings of Access and the benefits of getting around those shortcomings. There are about 170 solutions in this book that are segmented into 18 chapters of high-level topics such as Queries, Forms, XML, UI, VBA, Windows APIs, even Smart Tags. I would be really surprised to find someone who picked up this text, thumbed through the solutions, and found that there was nothing they could get out of this book.

I would say that if you are developing a professional Access front-end and/or database, you owe it to yourself to buy this book and review each solution before you release or ship your product. I did, and found either new answers and existing improvements to many of the things I was struggling with during my development cycles.

When I started my job, my first assignment was develop several Access databases. What they wanted was beyond what I knew of Access. After buying this book and Access Database Programming and Design, I was well on my way to develop a quite advanced Access database application. I would ask myself, "I wonder if I can..." After consulting this book for the anwser, BAM! I found it there. This book covers everything from simple VBA to advanced techniques such as incorporating a email system into a database, linked dropdown combo boxes using SQL, and creating VB Form control that tells you who all is currently in a database using ADO and VBA! I would say anyone wanting to cook a mean Access database should definitely pick this one up. It is an invaluable reference if you want to develop professional Access databases with incredible functionality!

This book I would recommend for people who use Access as their back end, and need to add some automation to their back end. It deals mostly with using VBA to solve problems, like:
* How to create an input box where you can get some better info than the standard VBA one
* Call Excel functions, and apply them to Access data
* Figure out which users have a shared database open, if you're
doing a blended Access/CF solution
* Managing report printing (see next set of bullets)

I recommend checking out this book under the following circumstances:
* You have internal and external clients hitting your database. In a situation like that, you can have your internal users access the database using a well-designed Access application, which this book will give you some tricks on how to create.
* In the alternative, you want to manage and analyze your data, and create print reports. That's where Access just as a stand-alone application gives a substantial advantage over any Web technology.

For a ColdFusion developer, there are some topics in this book that probably wouldn't do much good:
* Adding Smart Tags functionality to a database - if you're expanding beyond the reach of Microsoft Office, Smart Tags prove to be a nifty proprietary parlor trick
* Using Access' security management tools to manage user rights to database objects. If I run a Windows server, I would use Challenge and Response to create NTFS based permissions on my pages in my application that manage data. Otherwise, I'll use application-based usernames and passwords, same net result.
* Exporting Access data as XML using pre-defined schemas. Not bad, but ColdFusion has far better technology.

Don't get me wrong - those last three bullets are not any disrespect to this well-written, well-organized guide. I'm just looking at, "What topics would interest you if you're a ColdFusion developer?"

If you do want to learn more about Access database development as an art unto itself, this is not the place to begin. This is the place to arrive at.

This book I would recommend for people who use Access as their back end, and need to add some automation to their back end. It deals mostly with using VBA to solve problems, like:
* How to create an input box where you can get some better info than the standard VBA one
* Call Excel functions, and apply them to Access data
* Figure out which users have a shared database open, if you're
doing a blended Access/CF solution
* Managing report printing (see next set of bullets)

I recommend checking out this book under the following circumstances:
* You have internal and external clients hitting your database. In a situation like that, you can have your internal users access the database using a well-designed Access application, which this book will give you some tricks on how to create.
* In the alternative, you want to manage and analyze your data, and create print reports. That's where Access just as a stand-alone application gives a substantial advantage over any Web technology.

For a ColdFusion developer, there are some topics in this book that probably wouldn't do much good:
* Adding Smart Tags functionality to a database - if you're expanding beyond the reach of Microsoft Office, Smart Tags prove to be a nifty proprietary parlor trick
* Using Access' security management tools to manage user rights to database objects. If I run a Windows server, I would use Challenge and Response to create NTFS based permissions on my pages in my application that manage data. Otherwise, I'll use application-based usernames and passwords, same net result.
* Exporting Access data as XML using pre-defined schemas. Not bad, but ColdFusion has far better technology.

Don't get me wrong - those last three bullets are not any disrespect to this well-written, well-organized guide. I'm just looking at, "What topics would interest you if you're a ColdFusion developer?"

If you do want to learn more about Access database development as an art unto itself, this is not the place to begin. This is the place to arrive at.

Those familiar with Access may not be familiar with O'Reilly's Cookbook series. The Cookbook series takes common tough problems and provides simple recipes, often with multiple alternative takes, to solve the problem. The value is not only in reference, it also shows you new techniques for using Access or VB is new ways that you may not have thought of.

I highly recommend this book for any experienced Access user, or anyone looking to become an Access expert. This book will stretch your skills and make it easier to nod your head yes when your boss asks you to solve some tricky problem.

If you know basic Access and VB programming, it will give you needed solutions to real situations that actually do arise.

There's is no need to read it cover to cover. Just see what tips it has to offer from the table of contents. If it's something you need for your project, just go right to that section and start reading. You'll probably find suggestions that you never thought of too that are very useful in actual projects.

This is not a book for someone who doesn't know Access or VB at all. However if you know the basics of Access and VB and have gotten a real world project for the first time in Access, this book is a life-saver. A beginner can look like an experienced database programmer when armed with this book as a reference.

It gives useful solutions and tells you exactly how to do it and explains in detail how and why it works.

What more is there to say? It does assume some basic knowledge of Access and VBA, so it is more for the intermediate to advanced developer looking for useful features and work-arounds. Did I mention that the stuff works?

This is one of my all-time favorite Access books (Next to Wrox's Beginning Access VBA). If you want a cool solution to common situations/problems, you can find it in this book. The search textbox for the listbox control code is one of my favorites! There are some really good ideas in here for user interfaces. This book is for folks who have some VBA experience, so it's really not a beginner's book. Get some VBA experience and you'll totally appreciate the value of this book!

Having been an Access business apps developer for the past two years, I'm now beginning a MS Office automation project gluing Access and Excel. I don't have, nor have I read this book, but I've looked at the sample pages and am familiar with other titles by the authors. It seems like I'll need the Cookbook now, but I'm writing this in February 2004 and the next edition will be available next month - I'll wait until then.

Although I am an Access Developer (6 years), I have purchased no fewer than 15 - 20 books on Access 97, 2000, 2002.
Access Cookbook I purchased in late 2002 primarily for the first word at the top of the cover page - "Solutions".
True to the meaning, this book provides "how to " programming solutions that I have struggled with and needed over the past last 6 years.
Explanations are concise, and clear. And you get a CD with the examples which is worth many times the book costs.
I have other books by the authors; Developers Handbook for Acces 97 and 2000, and VBA for Developers. These books (1500 pages) primarly benefit the intermediate to advanced users.
The Access Cookbook should be a extremely helpful even to the beginning users (which we all were at some point).
Enjoy.

I am an MS Access developer for an architectural firm in Washington DC. In evaluating the MS Access cookbook, I will first offer what I liked about it and then what I didn't like. First, I liked HOW it was written. Other reviewers have commented on the ease of understanding acquired from such a complex topic, viz, one of computer programming and the Problem-Solution-Discussion framework approach in which the book was written and I agree. The book is written in a fashion that makes it very easy to grasp MS Access programming concepts. I also thought there was a diversity of topics covered which will (or should) stimulate the reader into tapping into his/her own creative potential when using Access. What I did NOT like about the book was that I thought it lacked overall practicality. While some of the topics discussed were practical answers to real programming issues in MS Access, I thought that most of the book was impractical for typical business operations. Perhaps another chapter could be added to the book that offered MORE practical solutions for small business. Would I have purchased the book had I known what I now know about it? Yes I would and that strongly suggests the book is worth purchasing. I believe that all books are the same relative to knowledge - no one book has all the answers. You read a variety of books and pull the bits and pieces that you like from each one to create an intrapersonal, collaborative framework of knowledge and wisdom. The MS Access cookbook is just that. A book from which you pull a few practical bits of programmming to add to your own repository of knowledge.