Where Microsoft's Inside Out series really scores over almost every alternative is in providing in-depth information, to the minutest level of detail. In this regard, the book is a superb reference for the professional developer and advanced user. It will enable you to look-up the complete detail on a specific aspect of the Access product, without needing to cross-reference other chapters. In this respect it may seem a little repetitive, but the benefit is that it is thorough.

For designing database applications, and for some of the more detailed aspects of teaching at A-Level, I have found the works of Viescas an invaluable source of reference, being reliably accurate, and sufficiently accessible that I can usually refer a student to a particular section to answer their question, knowing that they will understand this book. Inside-out. In-depth. No stone left unturned!

Quick solutions may be better-covered within the Microsoft Step-by-Step series, or possibly Viescas's newer work, Building Access Applications.

For thorough detail and organisation, I like this book enormously.

Having just a weekend to put an interface on this database, I bought this book to help me do this and bring me up to speed.

What a slow, tedious and badly written book. The examples are largely based on databases provided on a CD, so you don't actually build much yourself. Not a good way to learn. The author repeatedly tells you, you can 'drag the title bar to move the windows around on your screen and also drag the edges of the window to resize it'. A book written by volume rather for content. If you want to learn Access quickly, find another book.

In fact this book only makes me think now right I was in avoiding Microsoft Access for so long, and how little database application techniques have changed so little during that time.