Teach Yourself Microsoft Access 2000 in 21 Days by Cassel
and Palmer will teach you everything you need to know about Access in three
weeks. Supposedly. You’ll learn the theory behind databases (oh, because you
really need to know this to use Access *cough* SARCASM *cough*), the difference
between data and information (because a dictionary apparently is not good
enough), how to pick a primary key, how to sort data, how to make reports, how
to make forms, and all the other crazy sick nasty hard things that one can
theoretically do with Access.
The claim is twenty-one days. I started reading it about two
months ago. This book is probably the most boring book in existence and I would
USE IT SPARINGLY. I recommend making excellent use of the index and just solve
problems one by one as they come up. If you need to actually create databases,
I would suggest hiring someone else to do it for you. It’s not fun. Even a one paragraph
excerpt from this lengthy tome has twice the power of extra strength sominex.
And caffeine pills or tea or coffee will not help either. If you are a
masochist, break out your old Advanced Placement Biology text or something and
go to town.
This book tries to be helpful but all it achieves is a
healthy state of dry. A few jokes, maybe some comic strips, might lighten it up
a bit but instead it is just two guys on their high horses bragging about how
much they know how to do in Access.
Get this from a library if you have to or just keep one
around for reference only, but I would NOT recommend actually trying to read
this. It is worse than reading War and Peace in German not knowing ein from ich.