It defiantly gave me access. (Access 97 (Basic Skills) - Sue Coles, Jenny Rowley)

Member Name: LEIGHWHARTON

Product:	Access 97 (Basic Skills) - Sue Coles, Jenny Rowley
Date:	01/07/01 (33 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good information, Detailed, East to use

Disadvantages: Not in colour

As part of my university course, I was asked to do a project/ assignment on a database. I thought ‘oh, my god’ as I have never had a computer lesson about creating a database. The tutor of this unit recommended this book to all of my class,- access 97 basic skills.

I got all of the books that were recommended to me and out of all of them, this book was very easy to use, as it was layout very well and it did not use any complicated language.

This book has 26 sections that will cover everything that a person wants to know about access 97.

The some of the sections that I found very helpful in this book are:-

Introduction to Access
Tables, records and fields
Creating a table in a new database
Defining field properties
Introducing queries
Screen forms
Reports

Introduction to Access

This is a brilliant introduction to access for people who have no knowledge of the subject at all. ( Like me)
It gives an excellent introduction to What is a database?, What a database is used for?, and also What is a access database. I particularly found this section of this book very useful. It gives you the knowledge to build on.


Tables, records and fields

This section of this book is probably the most detailed. It gives you information on Database design, Data types, Tables, Records and also Fields.

Creating a table in a new database

This section of this book gives you information on Creating a database, Closing and opening a database, Defining a new table, Saving, Naming fields and also Creating a primary key. This section of this book gave me a good understanding into the subjects above.

Defining field properties

This section of this book covers subjects like, Defining field properties, Defaults, and also Validation.

Introducing queries

I never knew how to do a query within a database. This section of this book e
nabled me to, Enter query criteria, Rename and fields in a query and also To use logic in queries. Very Helpful.

Screen forms

By the end of reading this section of the book, I was able to Create a form, Save a form, Use a form and also to print a form.

Reports

This section of the book included information on Printing data and information and also saving and closing a report.


Other subjects that are covered in this book are:-

Using filters to select records,
Mailing a report,
Adding lines and rectangles
Grouped reports and
Quick reference.

Why I thought this book was good?

I thought this book was good because it was laid out very accessibly and it was structured well. Throughout out the book there were screen shots of what certain features should look like, which was very useful. Throughout this book in every chapter, there was an exercise for people to complete, so they would know how to do it on there own database. By some paragraphs in this book, there was a little symbol, in which people could look in the book to find a definition of a term. There are also tips throughout this book that provides a helpful hint or a short cut method, which I personally found very useful. At the end of this book there is a comprehensive glossary of terms.

The only thing that was a bit disappointing, in this book was that none of the pictures were in colour, but the content in this book soon made up for it.

This book certainly helped me gain more knowledge on access 97 and it also helped me create a working database for my assignment, which I got a distinction for.

DETAILS ON THIS BOOK

Title: Access 97 – Basic skills

Author: S Coles and J Rowley

Published by: Letts

ISBN: 1-85805-299-8

Summary: