When an application is part of the Microsoft Office suite, it's sure to be a leader in its field. In the realm of desktop database management, Access is top dog with millions of users. But this is one dog that can bite. Although Access is a powerful, relational tool with the fetching talents of a Labrador, it's not an easy beast to train.

Still, millions of users count on Access for everything from managing parts databases to running Web catalogs to working as a front end to mondo SQL databases. But Access is chockablock with annoyances---report hassles, query conundrums, VBA bugs, arcane error messages, and more.

O'Reilly's Annoyances series offer real-world help, right now, and Fixing Access Annoyances continues tradition. You'll not only squash bugs and workaround Access' limits, but you'll learn how to use Access to the max, whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro. Coverage includes install/configuration annoyances, building better tables and queries, creating forms that work right, generating reliable and sophisticated reports, pulling in data from a variety of sources, crafting macros and VBA code to customize Access, and much more.

You could grab those other books for help, but do they solve problems from page one? Meet a book of a different stripe. The authors come armed with knowledge of the program's quirks, design hurdles and interface snags. They provide you with battle plans in Fixing Access Annoyances to save you time and bouts of hair pulling.

Stop information from spiraling out of control when working with Access and trying to make this #$@@#$ thing work! Don't let its quirks, bugs, and troublemaking features beat you. Who you gonna call for help? Instead of waiting on the line for tech support or searching for the answer on the Internet with its too many resources to find exactly what you need, take control of databases with Fixing Access Annoyances, your partner on database adventures.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 7 Ratings

Good for a beginner, nothing new for experienced users - 2006-06-30
Reviewer Rating:
I wish I had this book when I began programming Access, it would have saved me a lot of frustration. The writing is easy to follow and it contains a wealth of information I had to either learn through trial and error or lots of searching google groups.

That said, there isn't much of value here for someone with a couple of years Access experience--you've already learned this stuff through trial and error or searching google groups!

I only found one piece of incorrect information--it is possible to create page headers on a subreport by creating a dummy grouping level (=1) and putting your headers there. The book says the only way to do it is by putting the headers on the parent report.

Must have for Access Developers - 2007-10-31
Reviewer Rating:
0-596-00852-X
Reviewed: 1st Edition

If you work with Access (or are thinking about it) you really need this book. Access is a very capable and powerful app and can certainly handle the majority of small business needs (and even enterprise class as well, say if you're using Access as a front end to a backend SQL database). The catch of course, is that Access is full of inconsistencies, irksome quirks, weird "features" that don't work as expected, and of course (like all complex software) bugs. (Although to be fair there are many things that MS probably can't change to ensure compatibility with already written applications).

This book notes the weird stuff that can crop up in using Access and more importantly how to work around same.
In my case I had never done any development with Access before but wanted to develop a custom application using it. Before starting however I bought this book - and am REALLY glad I did. There were many pitfalls that I would have fallen into unless otherwise warned (of course at the start it was kind of discouraging seeing all the "issues" one can have with Access, but better to be advised than sorry after!)

The format of the book is primarily a question and answer format, like "I'm trying to do XXX but it doesn't work" with an explanation of what's going on and *why* it's not working and solutions for accomplishing the task at hand (which may include VBA code or diagrams to help illustrate the point). The Q&As are organised into chapters dealing with a specific topic (i.e. Forms, Queries, Reports, Code Modules etc). In the course of my app development I have reached for this book more often than some of the thicker and heavier (not to mention more expensive) Access books, but you will undoubtedly need other books for reference as well (this book isn't a tutorial nor for absolute newbies to database or Access development, even though there are explanations describing normalisation, relationships, etc).

Aside from the Q&As there are very useful tips regarding recommended options to enable/disable ("Access's Bad Defaults"), Optimization ("How can I speed up a slow combo box?") and avoiding database corruption. This kind of "real world" information is exactly what you NEED to know when you do development and is precisely the kind of thing you'll NEVER find in the help files.

There's also other information such as a list of common Visual Basic functions (and what they do) which is useful when you need to do some task but don't know the name of the function. Likewise there's a similar list for Access Events which is helpful in figuring out which event you need to attach code to in order to have something happen. Lastly there's a Glossary of terms ("What's the difference between a bound & unbound control?").

Unlike other books this one doesn't come with a CD. But that's OK, because typically to solve problems you don't need a lot of code once you understand what's going on (in any case code will have to be customised for your app).

If you're developing an application in Access using custom forms, reports, VBA etc you'll get the most benefit from this book. Overall, I think this book's value exceeds the purchase price.

Very informative - 2009-10-20
Reviewer Rating:
I found this material very informative. It provided information that was not covered in many of the ACCESS books and Bibles.

Great resolutions for a quirky program - 2009-07-01
Reviewer Rating:
I often wondered about some of the Access 'quirks' I have encountered over the years; this book explains and resolves many of those issues. If you find yourself frustrated by these 'annoyances' and wish you knew how to avoid and/or resolve them, this book is a 'must-have'.

Annoyances fixed - 2008-04-06
Reviewer Rating:
This book makes it easy to fix Access. Simply look in the table of contents for the annoyance that is plaguing your database and go to the page that fixes it. Most of the fixes are simple ones that are either hidden from the user or just not documented well in the Access help. Just one of the fixes was worth the price of the book. The rest were bonuses. My database now works the way I had envisioned it would.

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