Who This Book Is For

We've written this book for professionals who use Microsoft Access in a business setting. We don't expect that you're a software developer by profession, but we do think you probably sit in front of a computer much of the day. You've got real work to get done, and you can't spend all day sitting around reading a computer book. This has shaped our coverage. We aim to teach you the essential skills involved in automating your databases as quickly as possible, so that your time investment in this book is paid back rapidly. We've also tried to expose you to many different techniques. As a result, you might find that you reference some subjects more than others, but everything will be of interest to the beginning VBA developer.

This book was written using Access 2003, the version that ships as part of the Microsoft Office System 2003. But you don't have to worry about upgrading to this latest version to use the information we've provided. The VBA language that you use has not changed substantially in recent years. You should be able to follow all the examples equally well with Access 2000 or Access 2002, although some things (such as toolbar icons) might look a bit different in earlier versions.