I've been programming in Access for over six years and have never come across a more comprehensive and easy-to-follow set of books than these Developer's Handbooks (both Desktop and Enterprise). I started with the 2000 version and will always purchase the next versions as they become available.

As an old Access 95 Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) I thought I knew the majority of the ins-and-outs of Access programming. Paul Litwin, Ken Getz, Mike Gunderloy - I give you my thanks for teaching this old dog new tricks.

As a small developer, my resources for materials is somewhat limited among the thousands available. I have found the Developer's Handbook(s) from Sybex to be valuable in my daily development. They are written so that beginning chapters are easily understand even by beginning developers and continue on with a wealth of reference for the most advanced. With these books, I can honestly say that I have not yet found any programming problem I cannot solve.

Then pick up this two-volume set and confirm it! I'll bet you there are still tips and tricks that you can learn and this set will show them to you. Both books definitely fall under the Intermediate-Advanced Access 2000 users category....

Volume 1 still covers mostly design environment topics, like advanced reporting & forms, SQL, using ADO code to loop through recordsets, VBA tricks, working with other Office apps. If you are looking for advanced Access info like migrating to SQL Server, optimizing multiuser performance, Data Access Pages or setup/deployment of an application, look at Volume 2.

I can't even get in to the level of detail these books provide, so here are just a few examples of tips/tricks I found useful in my corporate development:

1. Building an Append query in Access query viewer that actually hits an external Excel or .txt file.
2. Using a report's NoData event to display a message that there is no data in a report rather than returning or printing a blank report.
3. Sorting & grouping a report on the fly by asking the user in a form how they want to group or sort, then doing it with code.
4. An incredible section on how to dynamically optimize the application's screen resolution based on the user's screen size, complete with code you can paste and use!
5. Custom autonumber (so my records are ordered sequentially, rather than having number gaps after deleting an autonumbered data type field).

There are plenty more that I could add but I assume you get the picture! If you are very comfortable with Access, you need this set to complete your library and call yourself an Access Master!

I found this book today at Borders, it was the only copy they had left. It's full of funny,witty little poems and drawings by John Lennon, with a few that were written in partnership with Paul. The plays on words in this book are halarious, and add to the funniness. I reccomend this book to anyone who is a beatles fan. Only problem is, that at some parts the humor may be a little hard to understand, but once you read it a few times and realy think on it, it'll eventually come to you. This book is pretty good. Even though I haven't read it yet, I'm sure I Me Mine by George Harrison is pretty good also, seeing as how he is my favourite Beatle. Anyway, bottom line is: You should buy it if you're a beatles fan.

I love The Beatles and I love nonsense so this was a perfect match. When you feel you've been thinking too much for one day this is the book to read it is just pure fun. The little short stories just make you giggle even if you're one of those people who never laughs when reading. This book also makes John Lennon seem more human since he has become this legend you get to see this silly but still genius side to him. Just a warning don't try making sense of this book it will just give you a headache just read it for kicks. To quote dear Mr.Lennon "this correction of short writty is the most wonderfoul larf I've ever ready."

I read and bought this when I was a kid when it first came out . It stayed with me all my life. His humor was cynical and dry,: but asolutely right on target with the times that past and the times to come. Hilarious and not so funny but completely understood. A book that I would love to repurchase when I return back to work and have an income again. To pass on to my kids and my grandkids. A shame to have lost such a vibrant,intelligent and loving man. He gave me the will to survive a very dysfunctional life. His music and his write may they live forever.

This book is a definite must-have for fans of the animated Batman series. This book shows you how much love all the people involved in the show had for it. The level of detail that went into this show is insane! Take a look at the storyboards shown in the book for the episode "Avatar" and I'm sure you'll agree that those rough drawings look even better than some of the finished cartoons that have been on. There is a lot to like in this book and I hope they make a follow-up to this one because some of my favorite villains (Clayface, The Ventriloquist and Mr. Freeze) don't get as much said about them as, say, The Joker. That makes sense, but it annoys me a bit. That is why I hope they make a second book. Until that day, this is an outstanding work of art and is perfect for any fan's collection.

A spectacular inside view of what went into one of the best animated series ever created, full of paintings, musings, mechandise, idea sketches for the show and movies, etc. I enjoyed most reading about what they were forced to cut for a tv audience, and seeing the beautiful title cards that open each show. I bought this a few years back and I am still finding new things to pour over. I dislike 'Batman Beyond', though, thankfully they don't waste much time on that show.

This Book... Is The MUST GET for ANY Batman fan... It has everything you want, pictures and an inside look into what went into making the animated series. Plenty of cute comments by Paul Dini and Wonderful layouts by Chip Kidd. Trust me it's worth every penny.

I will not repeat what other reviewers have said about this classic learner's dictionary. It has been a valuable reference for ESL students for many decades. I own several learner's dictionaries published recently (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 4th Edition, Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, and Collins Cobuild 3rd edition) and some of them have features this one does not have. But I still use this dictionary a lot and will continue to use it. I hope a new edition of it will come out soon.

I have recently bought the millenium edition (hardbound) of this book. In my scientific studies (I study Scientology which uses a precise study technology that demands a good dictionary to look up misunderstood words) a good dictionary is vital.
This one has been very helpful to me as it gives precise yet comprehensible definitions. This is maybe the most important point of all.
I found it very easy to look up a word i did not understand and gain a conceptual understanding of that word after a short period of time. The definitions just make sense and are not too complicated and confusing.
It also includes example sentences and idioms and information for the further usage of a particular word.
It also has a section with colored pictures (maps, categories such as clothing, food, animals etc.) that provide a picture of the real thing that the word represents - a quite useful tool for foreigners and non native speakers like me.

If you are currently studying english, reading english texts (but have a limited vocabulary) or just don't want to run into too many complexities when using a dictionary and don't want to be too confused but you just want to know the meaning of a word and understand it, then this is the right dictionary for you.

As it is a dictionary for "learners" it does not include things like etymology and syllables (the only negative points), technical definitions (although it includes some where their appearance is reasonable) etc.

But it includes phonetic symbols at the bottom of each page and has, as all dictionaries, a section wich explains each symbol and abbreviation that can appear in an entry.
If there would appear some symbol or abbreviation in the entry that you wouldn't understand, you would find it easy to find its meaning as everything in this dictionary is exactly where you would consider it to be.
So you don't fool around loosing time and getting frustrated. I think the editors of some dictionaries assume that you already know all these symbols but include their definitions anyway in a very complicated way.

Not with this one.
I highly recommend this dictionary. You can buy it without reservations.
But...you should have a second one with etymologies at hand.

No other book on my bookshelf is more worn out. I use it all the time. When I started to study English I used to use an English / Portuguese (my first language) dictionary but I could only actually improve my English when I started using the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

The dictionary has lots of pictures (over 1700) for words that can be explained but for which a picture is much more effective like "hinge". The words have a pronunciation guide with a mark (') showing the main stress. There are many useful appendixes like irregular verbs conjugation, usage of numbers, punctuation, family relationships and a few colorful maps.

Over 220 usage notes clarify the subtle differences among words such as dealer trader and merchant. Although it's mainly a British English dictionary the differences in spelling, use or pronunciation between American English and British English are stressed.

By far the most interesting feature is the extremely reduced defining vocabulary constituted of 3500 words. The great majority of definitions are written using that reduced defining vocabulary. This simplifies the definitions and it's a great starting vocabulary for the beginners. The use of such a small defining vocabulary rules out the use of this dictionary as a thesaurus but the advantages compensate this drawback.

My copy is a paper back that has been reinforced with adhesive tape. This makes the dictionary lighter and handy. I used to put it on my back pack and take it to all my classes when I started college in USA.

The drawbacks are the need of an additional thesaurus and the fact that the entries are not syllabified. Nevertheless I would give it 10 stars if I could.

Leonardo Alves - December 2000

It's a rare thing indeed to discover a movie adaptation is actually better than the book that inspired it, but here it is: Paul Brickhill's THE GREAT ESCAPE is a great plot with no characters to speak of.

Brickhill gives a firsthand account of the escape of 76 men from Sagan, a German prisoner-of-war camp, during World War II. Through tireless efforts and disheartening setbacks, the men managed to dig a lengthy tunnel 30 feet down into the earth, and 300 feet towards possible freedom. The plan, which originally called for three such tunnels, was the single largest escape in WWII history, and the efforts, patience, and bravery of the men secures their escape as one of the most noble efforts of man.

What a pity, then, that THE GREAT ESCAPE is a fairly badly written first-hand narrative, related with all the style of a person making a grocery list. Brickhill has provided the bones of an amazing story, but he neglected to provide any meat along with them.

The story couldn't help but lend itself to a fascinating read. The actions of these men could never be anything less than remarkable. But all Brickhill does is tell the story. He doesn't add any true characterization to the hundreds of people who pop in and out, resulting in a lack of empathy for these men. The reader is left wanting to know more, but is frustratingly denied the opportunity. Even the leader, Roger Bushell, is a cipher, easily interchangeable with any other character.

It is easy to see why this story makes such fertile ground for a movie. The plot is astonishing, and the complete absence of any true personality leaves the filmmakers free to make up any character they want. Roger Bushell didn't escape from Sagan, Richard Attenborough did. So did Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson.

I don't want to seem as if I am making light of the situation. THE GREAT ESCAPE was a shining example of what humanity can achieve under the most strenuous circumstances. But Brickhill doesn't provide us with any reason to care. The story unfolds with all the excitement and tension of someone telling of their day at work. Simplicity in storytelling can be a fine thing, but not where the story demands so much more.

220 Allied POWs would have been swarming all over the Third Reich before the Germans realized they were missing. Unfortunately, only 76 managed to escape through a tunnel under Stalag Luft III that had taken a year to dig. Of those 76, only 3 managed to make their way back to Britain. Twelve found themselves back in Stalag Luft II in a matter of days. Eight wound up in concentration camps. The remaining 50 were shot by the Gestapo, on orders from Hitler himself. Among the 50 was South African-born RAF Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, a.k.a. "Big X", the originator of the escape plan. The Great Escape is an incredible read. While the book is narrated from third person omniscience, its author was anything but detatched from the story. Paul Brickhill mentions his own role in the escape only very briefly in the foreword to the work. A key element of the escape plan, as Brickhill recounts in great detail, was the forging of official papers required for freedom of movement across the Reich. Brickhill led the gang of "stooges" that warned the forgers when camp guards approached. He found himself barred from participating in the actual escape when Big X learned of his acute claustrophobia. That fear may well have saved his life. After the war, Brickhill interviewed several of his other fellow survivors to assemble the grand narrative. The result is a riveting tale that ranks among the greatest war stories ever written, fact or fiction. You've seen the movie. Now read the book!

Paul Brickhill, based on his actual experiences in a prison camp and using characters based on real life POW's, takes the reader behind the wire at a World War II prison camp. These men were trapped, unable to fight for their country in battle, so they found a way to do the next best thing. Led by Roger Bushell, they formed the X organization, a group of the most intelligent and resourceful prisoners from the British and American air forces. Using only their wits and the few materials available, they devised and executed a plan to tunnel under the fences and escape into Nazi Germany. Unfortunately this led to fifty of the escapees being shot by the Gestapo, but Brickhill does credit to their memory with this book. Using a light writing style, humorous anecdotes, and fascinating descriptions, Brickhill has created an entirely readable adventure with charismatic protagonists who gain the readers respect and sympathy from page one.

This is just a heck of a book - the best of all the Yankee books out there. As the flap copy says: "There are picks and profiles of the greatest (and worst) Yankee teams-sure to get a few arguments going. There are quotes, a quiz, lists, trivia, and tributes-as well as tales of fierce rivalries and unforgettable moments." A Yankee Century has it all

New York Yankees are the most popular, successful and enduring franchise in any sport. With all the amazing history that they have, can it be summed up in one book? The answer is no but this book does a great job of giving you a lot of their history in one book.
The beauty of this book is the little things, the attention that Harvey Frommer gave each page and each section. He listed so many facts in this book that any baseball fan would find this a great read.
The book has great quotes, timelines, short stories, player bios, full breakdowns of great records like the Joe DiMaggio hitting streak and when Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's record (the breakdown of Ruth's 60 is in the book too!). The quotes are great too and there is a lot of information in this book that has never been seen before like Mickey Mantle's Hall of Fame speech!
The nickname section is priceless and all of them are explained in good detail. The pictures are well above average too as you will see a younger Casey Stengel, Thurman Munson, Ruth, Mantle, Maris, and Mel Allen. That's right even the great announcers that have worked for the Yankees over the years get their moment in the sun too.
Expect a lot of Billy Martin mentions and Yogi-isms in this Yankee treasure. There are also mentions of movies and really anything that has happened to the Bronx Bombers like Yankee Firsts and Lasts. And this book even has every manager to ever put on the pinstripes.
This book will cost you just over twenty dollars, but for the money you get a ton of baseball knowledge so it is well worth it.

Winning more regular season games than any other franchise in the history of baseball, including 38 American League championships and 26 World Series, no team both defined and dominated the sport of baseball in the 20th century as did the New York Yankees. A Yankee Century captures the wonder and mystique that surrounds the team in a detailed album of stories, statistics, biographies, quotes and pictures. Harvey Frommer, a longtime Yankees fan, recreates the frequent highs and few lows of the franchise in an entertaining and accessible manner, relying on countless interviews with the players and coaches that made the Yankees great. The book is divided into a number of diverse sections detailing different aspects of the Yankees, including timelines, memorable moments, rosters, stadiums, and a 100-question quiz. An account by fan Barry Deutsch gives an example of both the power that the Yankees held and the passion that they inspired in their fans throughout the century:

When I was a kid growing up in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, there was no television. You saw occasional glimpses of baseball games in newsreels. You traded baseball cards. But mainly, you listened to the radio and envisioned what was going on. My becoming a Yankee fan had a lot to do with hearing Mel Allen on the radio. I liked his mellifluous voice, the way he described the game and talked about the players. Listening to Mel Allen was my first exposure to baseball, so to me, the Yankees were baseball.... Since those days, I have traveled quite a lot and lived in a number of places outside the United States, and it strikes me as significant that wherever I am, if I mention the Yankees, almost everyone seems to know who they are

I purchased the Access 97 Developer's Handbook and was very impressed with the content. With it my skills in VB and in Access were greatly boosted. When I purchased Office 2000 I went ahead and purchased Access 2000 Developer's Handbook, not really expecting alot of new content - just updated content, which I felt I needed.

This book covers all of the Ins/Outs of Access programming. While it might be a bit much for an absolute beginner who has no prior programming skills, it is a good book for anyone who intends to do a significant amont of work in Access. This book has basic information as well as some rather advanced concepts and techniques. All topics are presented clearly and with good examples.

There is even a touch of humor interspersed throughout the text. Be sure to look for the discussion of the evolution of COM.

In comparison to the earlier version of book, the same general topics are covered but many of the solutions are even better than they were in the Access 97 Handbook. There are many examples of class modules and collections. The examples themselves are useful (I love the TaggedValues class - I only wish I had thought of it myself)and they provide a good jump off point for someone who wants to build his own class modules.

I would definately recommend this book to anyone using Access 2000, whether or not you already have the earlier version.

The Access 2000 Developers Handbook is an essential resource for developing quality applications in Microsoft Access. It is the fourth book in the series, with equivalents written for each version of Access starting with Version 2.0, and all of them sit right next to each other on my bookshelf. The code included with the book's companion CD is worth the cover price alone! Although the book specifically targets Microsoft Access, it easily ports to Visual Basic and Active Server Pages applications.

The book contains thousands of lines of highly portable, usable and bug free code. The code included is more than just sample code; it is highly optimized, fully functional and rapidly incorporated into your project. Some outstanding examples include popup calendar and calculator controls, a Text File class which makes it simple to read, write and manipulate text files, form scaling code, Common File Dialog and Office File Open/Close Dialog wrappers, excellent automation samples including manipulating Outlook to generate time reports, and Word to print an invoice. Many of the code samples literally paste straight into the Visual Basic development environment with no modification, and have worked bug free in my applications for quite some time. Additionally, where appropriate, all code included with the Access 2000 Developers Handbook has been incorporated into class modules, which further makes it simple to incorporate into your projects.

The book also has some of the best information about relational database design, SQL syntax and, much more. Microsoft Access encompasses many new technologies, and this book does the best job of providing a navigational guide through them to enable its readers to become high quality, proficient developers. Access Developers can find work developing applications without reading this book, but it isn't a good idea!

If you buy only one book for Access 2000, the Access 2000 Developers Handbook should be the one.

I purchased this book on the recommendation of our local Access SIG group leader. He spoke highly of authors' Access 97 Handbook. I am new to Access and VBA. I was anxious to come up to speed quickly. I first purchased "Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Access 2000 in 21 days" by Paul Cassel and Pamela Palmer. That book put me on the right path. After almost completing that book, I started tackling some complex automation projects. This book accelerated my learning to an amazing degree. This handbook explains the ADO Model, the Object Model and Automation very clearly and logically. The examples are excellent and the companion CD is really useful.

The only topic this book does not cover is the DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange). On the other hand, after reading the book, I realized that the DDE is not necessary for automation since the Object Model is more powerful and efficient.

I recommend this book to anyone who has the need to use VBA for automation and for extending the standard capability of Access 2000.

This is the second book by Dickens I have read so far, but it will not be the last. "Bleak House" is long, tightly plotted, wonderfully descriptive, and full of memorable characters. Dickens has written a vast story centered on the Jarndyce inheritance, and masterly manages the switches between third person omniscient narrator and first person limited narrator. His main character Esther never quite convinces me of her all-around goodness, but the novel is so well-written that I just took Esther as she was described and ran along with the story. In this book a poor boy (Jo) will be literally chased from places of refuge and thus provide Dickens with one of his most powerful ways to indict a system that was particularly cruel to children. Mr. Skimpole, pretending not to be interested in money; Mr. Jarndyce, generous and good; Richard, stupid and blind; the memorable Dedlocks, and My Lady Dedlock's secret being uncovered by the sinister Mr. Tulkinghorn; Mrs. Jellyby and her telescopic philanthropy; the Ironmaster described in Chapter 28, presenting quite a different view of industralization than that shown by Dickens in his next work, "Hard Times." Here is a veritable cosmos of people, neighbors, friends, enemies, lovers, rivals, sinners, and saints, and Dickens proves himself a true master at describing their lives and the environment they dwell in. There are landmark chapters: Chapter One must be the best description of a dismal city under attack by dismal weather and tightly tied by perfectly dismal laws, where the Lord Chancellor sits eternally in Lincoln's Inn Hall. Chapter 32 has one of the eeriest scenes ever written, with suspicious smoke, greasy and reeking, as a prelude to a grisly discovery. Chapter 47 is when Jo cannot "move along" anymore. This Norton Critical is perhaps the best edition of "Bleak House" so far: the footnotes help a lot, and the two Introductions are key to understanding the Law system at the time the action takes place, plus Dickens' interest in this particular topic. To round everything off, read also the criticism of our contemporaries, as well as that of Dickens' time. "Bleak House" is a long, complex novel that opens a window for us to another world. It is never boring and, appearances to the contrary, is not bleak. Enjoy.

After years without picking up a novel by Dickens (memories of starchy classes at school), I decided to plunge into "Bleak House", a novel that had been sitting on my bookshelf for about ten years, waiting to be read. Although I found it heavy going at first, mainly because the style is so unfamiliar to modern readers, after about ten pages I was swept up and carried off, unable to put the hefty tome down until I had finished it. This book is a definite classic. The sheer scope of the tale, the wit of the satire (which could still be applied to many legal proceedings today) and the believable characters gripped me up until the magnificent conclusion. One particularly striking thing is the "cinematic" aspect of certain chapters as they switch between different angles, building up to a pitch that leaves the reader breathless. I can't recommend "Bleak House" too highly. And I won't wait so long before reading more Dickens novels.

"There is little to be satisfied in reading this book"?? I couldn't disagree more. Bleak House left a profound impression on me, and was so utterly satisfying a reading experience that I wanted it never to end. I've read it twice over the years and look forward to reading it again. Definitely my favorite novel.

I don't know what the previous reviewer's demands are when reading a novel, but mine are these: the story must create its world - whatever and wherever that world might be - and make me BELIEVE it. If the novelist cannot create that world in my mind, and convince me of its truths, they've wasted my time (style doesn't matter - it can be clean and spare like Orwell or verbose like Dickens, because any style can work in the hands of someone who knows how to use it). Many novels fail this test, but Bleak House is not one of them.

Bleak House succeeds in creating a wonderfully dark and complex spider web of a world. On the surface it's unfamiliar: Victorian London and the court of Chancery - obviously no one alive today knows that world first hand. And yet as you read it you know it to be real: the deviousness, the longing, the secrets, the bureaucracy, the overblown egos, the unfairness of it all. Wait a minute... could that be because all those things still exist today?

But it's not all doom and gloom. It also has Dickens's many shades of humor: silliness, word play, comic dialogue, preposterous characters with mocking names, and of course a constant satirical edge. It also has anger and passion and tenderness.

I will grant one thing: if you don't love reading enough to get into the flow of Dickens's sentences, you'll probably feel like the previous reviewer that "...it goes on and on, in interminable detail and description...". It's a different dance rhythm folks, but well worth getting used to. If you have to, work your way up to it. Don't start with a biggie like Bleak House, start with one of his wonderful short pieces such as A Christmas Carol.

Dickens was a gifted storyteller and Bleak House is his masterpiece. If you love to dive into a book, read and enjoy this gem!

Being a Kids in the Hall fan, I may be biased, but I have loaned this book to some of my friends who aren't quite so lucky to have experience the hilarity of the Kids. They have quite enjoyed the book, and rightly so! It is a well-written, and although unsuffice enough to say, very funny. Scott's character recalls hilarious anecdotes and manages to make something that would normally be serious and unlaughable into just that, a laughing matter. I suggest this book to anyone unless you're homophobic; you never get the full gist of Buddy Cole's flamingness until you read Buddy Babylon. It's great.

The four funniest books I have read in my life were: 1) Candide by Voltaire, 2) A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy O'Toole, 3) My Gorgeous Life by Dame Edna (Barry Humphries) and 4) Buddy Babylon. This book is so funny, I was laughing out loud while reading it during lunch at a restaurant. Scott Thompson is funny to the extreme. And I do not mean "smile" funny but out loud hilarious funny. This is the kind of comic book I will be reading every couple of years just to enjoy all of the routines and great lines over and over again. Absolutely the funniest book in years!!!

It is well written, very funny, and I didn't fall asleep reading it. This is the first book I haven't fallen asleep to. I think It was the best book I have ever read. The part about when Buddy gave head to Marco in the public bathroom was the best.

The pictures in this book are as colorful and bright as you expect from the Sticklands, but it isn't nearly as fun to read and reread as "Ten Terrible Dinosaurs". It's a book of opposites, and does have some different word choices than most opposites books but it wouldn't be my first recommendation of the Stickland's books.

I have two boys, 5 and 8, and they've both loved this book. The pictures are wonderful and the copy is fun to read together. My boys love to shout, "Dinosaur roar!" My youngest still reads it regularly. And he recently insisted on giving a copy to his 3-yr-old cousin for her birthay. Now, it's my neice's favorite book.

If you are in the market for a childrens book for ages 2 to 6...then look no further. This book captivates every child Ive seen go near it. We have purchased so many copies for gifts at birthday parties....I lost count. The colors, words, non-threatening dinosaurs, and the hard pages are all great reasons to own this book. If you want a vertually indistructable text that they will sit still and listen to, or read themselves....start clicking that mouse. I plan to buy another half dozen or more before the year is out. What better gift than that of reading to a small child!