How Is This Book Different from All Other Access Books?

Several Access books on the market accurately describe its many features. A few (not enough) books make database theory accessible to the average user. But no book I've seen spends the time or real estate required for you to gain a basic understanding of relational database theory and then builds on that knowledge to explain key Access objects and features.

I also think some Access books repeat much material that is available in the program's Help files. The motives are perfectly understandable, even laudatory: Access Help has lots of great charts that present information succinctly, and authors want their books to be comprehensive. It's impossible to know which user will need what information, and no author wants his readers running to the Help screen because they can't find what they need in his book.

But in my view, the true mission of a computer book is to explain difficult concepts in innovative ways so that readers learn and remember them. Thus, I have tried to focus on Access features and issues that pose some intellectual or theoretical problem. For topics that do not raise any thorny theoretical issues but are nonetheless still confusing, I try to give detailed explanations or hands-on examples that illustrate the problem and disclose the solution.

For the sake of completeness and convenience, I have included some essential topics that do not pose any great theoretical issues, nor are they bewildering. In these areas, I have attempted to add some value by providing a hands-on exercise, a neat tip, an interesting take, or simply a better presentation than that available in Access Help. I do not deny that you could have gleaned a certain amount of material in this book simply by pressing F1 in Access, but I think it represents a relatively small proportion of the total content.