How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Access 2003

this is an very well easy o read and easy to use yet powerful tool. practice files can be download from osborne so no cd is required. if you're a beginner you can pick and quickly - if your advanced there's meat there also. good examples.

I usually rely on the O'Reilly guides for software, but could not find one appropriate to my level of experience in Access - I have used the program before to look up and modify data, but am now in charge of organizing a small database and developing some queries. This book did a good job of breaking down the process, BOTH through the *wizards* - of which Access has an inordinate number, AND without the wizards. I was surprised to see such negative reviews - unless other reviewers are frustrated with the lack of VBA or SQL. But this doesn't claim to be a book about either of those languages. Maybe the fact is Access is just an unfriendly program, both to programmers (too many wizards) and non-technical users (for whom SQL=WTF). The only major drawback to this book is that it does not provide an adequate introduction or overview to Access. If you have never used Access before, that would be a problem. Otherwise, it is a good basic how-to.