Microsoft Access 2013 Inside Out

Microsoft Access 2013 is undergoing a fundamental shift away from traditional desktop databases toward web development - as with most Microsoft offerings. This book is a strong reflection of that and the author points this out quite clearly straight up, with no new features added to the desktop side of Access, realistically the bulk of the book needed to be dedicated to web app development. The previous edition of this book (for the 2010 version) had a bonus CD with a lot of important additional content, with this edition you have to download that content which I personally found a little disappointing. Access publishes web apps through SharePoint so you need access to a SharePoint site in order to make the most of this book.With Jeff Conrad being a Microsoft tester, he gets the inside word on lots of areas of the program but I found the book came up short in a couple of areas, most notably around security etc. In the end though, its is a very useful reference - if not quite complete - for building and deploying a web app from Access, the sample DB's are very well thought out and give you plenty of hints on how things can be done.

Preface:I preordered and paid for this book months in advance without hesitation. I have met Jeff Conrad several times while attending the Microsoft Global MVP Summits in Redmond WA. Well aware Jeff’s passion for Microsoft Access and more recently Access Web Apps (new in Access 2013), I suspected this book would be outstanding in every context and that is exactly the case.Side Note For Clarification:In Access 2013, the distinction is between the ‘desktop side’ and the ‘web app side’. In Access 2010, it was ‘desktop side’ and ‘web database side’. In Access 2007 well, never mind. And prior to Access 2007, there was only the desktop side.About The Book:If you are looking for a comprehensive reference on Access 2013 Web Apps, this is the book for you. The subjects of design, deployment, configuration and maintenance, including Sharepoint administration and Access Services related to Access Web apps … are all covered in excruciating detail. Screenshots, step by step examples, tips and in-depth content are presented throughout the book.And, if you are totally new to Microsoft Access in general, the ‘desktop’ side of Access 2013 is covered in an equally elegant manner as well. I’ve been developing with Microsoft Access 24x7x365 since v1.0 – 1992, so my main interest with regard to this book is Access 2013 Web Apps. However, I have discovered several very cool ‘tips’ for desktop databases as well.But wait … there’s more. A ton of sample files, both for Desktop Databases and Web Apps are available for download. I’m currently developing several Web Apps and find myself continually referring to subjects in this book. In fact, without this book, navigating your way through the design aspects of Web Apps would be a daunting task.Conclusion:Highly recommended. Get this book and you will be Good To Go toward your journey into Access Desktop Databases and Access 2013 Web Apps.

I'm reviewing the printed version.As someone else commented I think, the printed version is real garbage. The figures are all badly pixelated and printed in extremely light monochrome gray ink and are impossible to read.The pages are also coming apart in my hands.It's a shame because the writing is good and the content is just what I was looking for as far covering Access Web Apps for SharePoint 2013.I have the Kindle version also and it reads fine. So if that's what you read, you'll probably be ok.But if you are someone who likes paper books, Stay away.

I am only on chapter 5 of this book and I am compelled to write a review for the first time. I have a shelf full of books that I have read over the past 20 years and this book is one of the BEST computer ones I have read. Jeff has done an outstanding job explaining exactly how to do everything needed to design and build an Access Web App. His approach is very thorough and he leaves nothing to chance. I wish more authors took this approach. He does a very good job explaining why there are different options and what happens when each option is chosen. I have never read a book where the author has explained each and every way to accomplish something, I found this very helpful.I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in building Access Web Apps with SharePoint 2013.

This book is primarily for the experienced user who wants to learn how to make use of the newer features of Access 2013. I still find the more basic features in in my copy of 2007 and 2010 versions.

As another reviewer posted, this book focuses on web applications. The desktop discussion is very limited and does not address form or report development. Additionally the book refers to a Chapter 24 concerning VBA but there is no Chapter 24 in either the book or in Bonus materials.

Awesome! Jeff Conrad is a great writer. He is very thorough and uses terminology correctly. As a trainer, I so much appreciate knowing what to call things, what they are, and how to use them. I recommend this book to Microsoft Access beginners and also seasoned developers (as I am). The extra information in the appendices is also very helpful.Once I decided to start reading this book, I could barely put it down. I read it cover-to-cover. If you just buy one book for Access 2013, this is it.

I heard a presentation by Jeff Conrad and decided to purchase his book to learn specifically about Access web applications and macros. His book took me step-by-step through the process and answered my questions as I went along. He also provides several full-featured, real applications to use as models for the concepts he is teaching. His writing style is easy to understand. I would definitely recommend Microsoft Access 2013 Inside Out by Jeff Conrad.

Unlike earlier editions of this book, the 2013 version of Access Inside-Out is a positively slimline ~800 pages. So how, you might be wondering, did MS Press manage to cram in all the extra new features of Access 2013 into such a slimline tome? The answer is: they didn't bother. Instead, fully 75% [the first 600 pages] are spent entirely on discussing the Sharepoint/Web integration that comes as a new feature in Access 2013. From a desktop user's perspective, the book scrapes by with 3 chapters: one on the user interface, one on designing tables and one on modifying table design. The paper edition covers nothing of value on macros, writing applications, queries, reports or any of the multitude other features that Access supports.However, these aspects of the book (Chapters 12 through 27) are included in "PDF Only" format, which you can get via download from the MS Press web site when you register your copy of the book [personal email details required]. As another example of the web-driven bias of the book, the "sample" files offered have to be uploaded to a Sharepoint site to work... Fine if you work for a company or want to be dependent on a net connection and the Microsoft Cloud, useless for anything else. The is a needless dependency, likely designed to encourage people to adopt the MS Cloud service, but forcing it into the book seems pointless.The real issue from my perspective, however, is that unlike previous copies of the Inside Out series, the 2013 edition does not provide a complete copy of the book in PDF form as an enclosed CD with the paper copy. If you want this you have to *buy* a second copy of the book, for the delightful sum of an extra $39.99 [plus the currency conversion charges levied if you are not a US citizen]. The reasoning for this is hinted at within the MS Press web site itself, where it explains that if you do purchase an "eBook copy" [i.e. complete PDF] then your copy will be "personalised" with your own name embedded in it as a watermark. This strongly suggests that Microsoft have done this because people were buying and sharing the PDF copies of the book. Well, OK, but why charge another £39.99 for something that up until this release was free? That's just blatant profiteering...So: Access 2013 Inside Out is likely to be of interest for anyone wanting to use Access to Develop complex web applications they plan to host via Sharepoint. It does have another 900 pages of "traditional" Access content available via download only [no CD] and if you'd like an electronic copy of the portion that *is* provided on paper, that will cost you another $39.99...Positives:1. Good introduction to "Access for the Web" and Sharepoint integraitonNegatives:1. The traditional use of databases has been relegated to chapters carried only in a downloadable, watermarked, PDF2. The fonts size of the paper book remains offensively small at 4 point [18 characters to the inch]. Most books publish at 10 point [12 characters to the inch] and good ones at 12 point [10 characters to the inch].3. If you want to work with a purely electronic copy [i.e. to avoid going blind thanks to the stupidly small print size], you will have to pay out another $40... [if this was your intent then don't buy the paper edition - go direct to the MS Press web site and get the eBook version].On balance, even if you're in need of a book covering the integration from Access to Sharepoint, I'd have to recommend that you look somewhere else. This publication does not deserve your patronage.

Finally a book with a focus on the web-based Access 2013. Other Access 2013 books (including the not-too-bad Access 2013: The Hidden Manual) focus instead on the desktop features of Access 2013, with only a small chapter about the web features. This one starts immediately with the extraordinary capacities of the web features, and it does it brilliantly, combining simple explanations with powerful macros and examples. Note that you can easily start by buying a cheap Microsoft Office 365 subscription for yourself.I haven't gone through all the example databases available but they all look very impressive. It is clearly a thorough book. It is self-explained and without jargon.

The book has a lot of useful stuff in it - I have bee using MS Access since the late 90s, but there is more to learn with each new version of Access, and this book has certainly helped me to get up to speed with the new features of Access 2013 which I need to know about. However, a large proportion of the more advanced material provided by the book is contained in downloadable documents rather than the printed book itself. This would be OK if there were a comprehensive TOC and index, but unless I am mistaken these do not exist.Colin Bright

Terrible Product.1. Only covers web side of developing Access Applications. Only 12 out of the 27 chapters of this book are in the printed version. 9 of these are about the web aspect. 3 then are devoted to Desktop Apps.2. Print quality is appalling. Font is small, pictures are very poorly printed, to the extent of being illegible.I have the 2003 version of this book which is about as comprehensive as they get. Obviously, it's fairly out of date now, and I wanted a comprehensive 'Inside Out' manual for the current version of the software. Fair enough, you get access to the online content...... IF I'D WANTED AN EBOOK I WOULDN'T HAVE BOUGHT THE BOOK!!!!

I purchased this book to update myself on Access as until recently I was operating Access 2003. A change of computer gave me Access 2013 and I felt I had a lot to catch up on.I'm a bit disappointed with the book as it seems to concentrate on developing web site applications. There is the opportunity to download further chapters with what is described as desktop applications but this was not clear when I purchased the book.It is not the books fault but the screenshots are the "wishy- washy" pale grey of the latest versions of Office and are not the easiest to read therefore.To sum up, a good detailed book for developing a web based database, but not what I thought was "on the tin"