About the Author

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Helen Feddema grew up in New York City. She was ready for computers when she was 12, but computers were not yet ready for her. So she earned a degree in philosophy from Columbia University and a master s in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School while working at various office jobs. It was at HDS that she acquired her first computer, an Osborne, and soon computers were her primary interest. She started with word processing and spreadsheets, went on to learn dBASE, and did dBASE develop-ment for several years, part of this time as a corporate developer. After being laid off in a flurry of corporate downsizing, she started doing independent consulting and devel-opment, using dBASE, ObjectVision, WordPerfect, and Paradox.

Always on the lookout for something new and better, Helen beta tested Access 1.0 and soon recognized that this was the database she d been expecting ever since Windows 3.0 was introduced and she had perceived the gap waiting to be filled by a great Windows database. Since then she has worked as a developer of Microsoft Office applications, specializing in Access, Outlook, and Word.

Helen has been a prolific author and coauthor of Access-related books and publications, cowriting Inside Microsoft Access (New Riders, 1992), Access How-Tos (Waite Group Press, 1995), and MCSD: Access 95 Study Guide (Sybex, 1998), and authoring DAO Object Model: The Definitive Reference (O Reilly, 2000) and two books within the The Pros Talk Access series Power Forms and Power Reports (Pinnacle, 1994). Other Office-related books include Teach Yourself Project (Que, 1998) and Special Edition: Using Microsoft Outlook 2000 (Que, 1999), among others.

She has also been a regular contributor to Pinnacle s Smart Access and Office Developer journals, edits Woody s Access Watch e-zine, and writes its Access Archon column. Helen maintains a Web page (http://www.helenfeddema.com) with a large selection of code samples that focus on connecting Access, Outlook, Word, and Excel (including several Access add-ins). The site includes all of her Access Archon articles.

She is a big-time beta tester, sometimes having seven or eight betas running at once (mostly Microsoft). She has participated in every Access beta from 1.0 to 2002 and is a member of the Access Insiders group.

Helen lives in the mid-Hudson Valley area of New York State, with three cats and three computers.