I have been working in this profession for 30 years and have migrated from COBOL to VB-3, to VB-6, and now to VB.Net. The title of this book is "Programming Microsoft Visual Basic.Net for Microsoft Access Databases."
When I started reading the book it began with very basic VB for the first 128 pages. Then once you do get into the VB sections of the book, there is a lot of repetition and not all of MS Access/VB programming is covered. Everything is done using embedded SQL commands. No raw access to MS Access. Try and find an INDEX change, or a SEEK command.
Rick, you should publish a second book and finish the topic and send it to everyone who purchased this book free.

As I read the review that compained about the heavy use of ADO rather than ADO.net in the first part of the book, it seemed to me that the reviewer missed what Dobson was trying to do. This book really teaches two subjects--VS.Net and ADO.Net as it applies to Access. I appreciated that he used the old familiar ADO while discussing the new, unfamiliar VS.Net, and then, when the reader should be comfortable with the first topic, began to teach the second. I think he did a good job of laying the groudwork for using Visual Studio.net before then introducing the complex topic of switching to ADO.net. I would recommend this book for anyone transitioning from VB or VBA to .net using Access databases.

I'm a brand new developer using VS.NET, and having never used Visual Studio before I've grown very tired of every single book on .NET
spending %60 of their time explaining how it was done in Visual Studio 6, and how it is done in Visual Studio .NET. This book isn't much
different except that I see a shocking amount of emphasis on the "old" ADO method of data access. In fact, if I read this correctly,
there is more written on ADO/ADOX than there is about ADO.NET.

This is about the 10th book on .NET that I've purchased and every one so far (especially those from MS Press) spend 2-6 chapters talking
about .NET, what it is and why is is so bloody terrific. Book authors, PLEASE, lets stop introducing and re-introducing the same stuff
in EVERY .NET book! Write a "Beginning .NET" for all that stuff and save your readers some time!

Overall my opinion is that this book is mediocre. What this book is is a general .NET book with an
emphasis on database programming (albeit with the "old" ADO stuff).

In short, I'm glad I bought it used for only $10.

The target audience for the book is, quite simply, Access developers who are accustomed to VBA and/or VB 6.

This book serves a good purpose, as the .NET materials I have seen to date all refer to SQL Server in their examples; they acknowledge Access, but fail to show its uses. I am not crazy about seeing "old" technology such as ADO used in some of the examples, but for a book of this nature (transitioning between coding languages) I guess that is inevitable that some old/new information would be included at various points.

Do not purchase the book if you're intending to use the built-in VBA capabilities of Access or other Office applications -- that's strictly not covered. What you will find, though, is a good sense of how VB.NET operates on its own, and how to create applications that draw upon the data stored in your Access databases.

This should be a good base point for someone who's developed in Access, and wants to investigate moving forward; it should be a means to an end, rather than the destination itself. Additional reading on ADO.NET and classes will be helpful, I believe, to continue fleshing out knowledge to be truly effective in your work, but this book does a good job of introducting those concepts.

Nice walkthrough of setting up database security (MDW file). Only reasonable source I found for this.

Poor teaching style!
Code does not work!
Code not complete!

poor reviews are deserved! find another book!

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't see where this book talks about Microsoft Access other than in the title.

I see the author is trying to pump it up but this is not a very good book. Poor examples; v. little Access, best to spend your money else where.

As many of the books for Microsoft Press this book is written in a poor educational and pedagogical manner, even for a keen amateur programmer as myself. I am sure Rick Dobson is an expert, but he is a miserable teacher.

The writing style of the author too poor. He explain all the source code of the project and put it (source code) on the next page. It is very difficult to browse it steps, the book also less screen shot. Unlike Visual Basic .Net Programming which author by Harold Davis is writing in a good style. He explain the piece of code one bye one and finally he show the complete procedure. Screen are always show in the page of explaination. Finally the explaination is good but the writing style should improve.

I'm an Access developer and thought that this book would help me leverage my knowledge on Access and VB/VBA for use in .Net but unfortunately I found that this book rehashes on what I already know. Any intermediate or higher level programmer will find that this book will tell you once more about how to use Windows controls, program loops, etc. that he/she should already know very well by now. Also, the simple code samples are easy enough to read that they should NOT need to be described in great detail. What's worse, ADO (not ADO.Net) is used extensively so once more this is information I already know. There is no reason to limit yourself to the old ADO whether you are using Access databases or SQL Server databases. It's like driving a brand new car but leaving it in first gear.

I think programmers who are just past the beginner level but well before intermediate level will find this book worthwhile because it does go in quite a lot of detail, detail that would be too much for a beginner but old hat for more experienced VB/VBA programmers.