Acknowledgments

One of the best things about writing a book is finishing it and getting to thank all of the other people who contributed . Authors can come up with a pile of manuscript (or, these days, computer files), but many other people are essential for producing the printed book that you're reading. So our thanks to Acquisitions Editor Loretta Yates, Development Editor Sean Dixon, Project Editor Matt Purcell, and Technical Editor Mark Hall. We'd also like to thank Stephanie McComb, who got us started on the first edition of this book. Thanks go out also to our able production staff. We couldn't have done it without you.

Access 2003 is the eighth version of Access. Although the program has come a long way in that time, an Access 1.0 developer would still recognize the version that we work with today. The original Access team and their successors did phenomenal work in coming up with this groundbreaking database, and we're pleased to build on their work. There's no way to individually thank the hundreds of developers, testers, writers, and managers at Microsoft who pulled together Access, but we are keenly aware of their contribution to this book.

Of course, we each have our own support system as well. Mike's consists of his wife Dana and his wonderful kids Adam and Kayla, who help out around the farm, appreciate home- cooked meals, play, smile, and otherwise make life worthwhile. And big thanks to Susan for being such a great writing partner.

Susan thanks Mike Gunderloy for agreeing to take on the project at the last minute and to Stephanie McComb at Que for contacting me about the book. Thanks to The Cobb Group for changing the focus of my career. Mostly, I thank my family for helping me to work from home in my socks and sweatshirt.

We Want to Hear from You!

As the reader of this book, you are our most important critic and commentator. We value your opinion and want to know what we're doing right, what we could do better, what areas you'd like to see us publish in, and any other words of wisdom you're willing to pass our way.

As an associate publisher for Que Publishing, I welcome your comments. You can email or write me directly to let me know what you did or didn't like about this bookas well as what we can do to make our books better.

Please note that I cannot help you with technical problems related to the topic of this book. We do have a User Services group , however, where I will forward specific technical questions related to the book.

When you write, please be sure to include this book's title and author as well as your name , email address, and phone number. I will carefully review your comments and share them with the author and editors who worked on the book.

Email:	feedback@quepublishing.com
Mail:	Michael Stephens Que Publishing 800 East 96th Street Indianapolis, IN 46240 USA

For more information about this book or another Que title, visit our Web site at www.quepublishing.com. Type the ISBN (excluding hyphens) or the title of a book in the Search field to find the page you're looking for.

Introduction

Maybe you picked this book up because you already know you want to learn about Access, Microsoft's user -friendly database for the Windows operating system. Or perhaps you know that you're drowning in a sea of information and vaguely think that Access might be the answer. Then again, maybe you just liked the cover. Whatever the reason, welcome! We think you've come to the right place.

As we said, Access is a database . What does that mean? You'll learn more in this book, but for now, think of Access as a handy place to store and organize things. You can store almost anything you please in an Access database:

Your recipe collection
Pictures of your pets
The inventory records for your home-based business
Birthdays and addresses of friends and relatives
The author and title of every book you own
Just about anything else you can think of

Databases are used by everyone from grandmothers to major corporations. If you've never used a database before, don't worry. Access is the friendliest and easiest -to-use database on the market today. If you can click a mouse and type, you can use Access.

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Gunderloy M., Harkins S.

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