Microsoft Office Access 2003 QuickSteps

The graphics in this book makes it easy to understand. Great for a beginner.

I am very proficent at Excel and thought that Access would be somewhat similar. I was wrong, Access is proving to be a difficult learn for me. I have learned enough to know that Access is a better way but I am still struggling. I bought Video Professor CD and it was adequate but lacks the reference material that an average learner like myself needs. This book has helped me tremendously! I am currently on Chapter 5 (of 10) and it is beginning to come together. The book, I believe, is for beginners but will handle most issues right up to intermediate needs.

Great Beginner Book This book gives great pictures will each page and a great how to. Great for first time users.

I manage a medium-sized network and support a large number of fairly savvy users. That is, most users know how to do their specific tasks very well and are willing to learn new things. But they are not willing to sit down with a book full of dense text. This is where the "Quick Steps" books come in handy. I keep a number of these books on hand and when a user requests assistance, I give them one of the books with the appropriate page bookmarked. Steps are outlined in full color with lots of pictures and pointers and tips. Additional information is set off in side boxes so users can learn more if they choose. What I have found is that once a user completes a task successfully, they get fairly excited about the experience and browse the book to learn more. The books really stimulate users to experiment with things they would not normally bother to learn. And that is where this book excels. It is a "browser." Users don't feel like they need to start at the beginning and read through to the end. I get lots of grumbles when I ask for the book back so I can pass it on to others. This book is also great for new users. I tell them to spend a few hours working through the steps, which are easy to follow and can be done at a fairly fast pace. Most users think the full color layout is fun to work through. The down-side is that like any book, space is limited, especially with the fully-illustrated format, so you're obviously not going to find everything in these books, but I do feel they contain a good balance of material and are appropriate for corporate libraries. Marty (the Quick Steps series author) and I are fellow writers and that is how I learned about these books. I must say that it has helped my users enormously and relieved my support task. Hey, it's the 21st century. Anyone working in an office should know how to work with operating systems and common applications. Most people can do that if they have easily accessible references and refresher material like these books. Thanks to Marty for developing the "Quick Steps" concept and to McGraw-Hill for publishing this series.

I've been "Access adverse" even though it would be good to know and use it for work. I found this particular book quite helpful and easy to follow due to a lot of graphics, a step by step approach and assumption that the user is starting with little or no previous knowledge.