Ive 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 Developers 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.
In 7+ years of VB/VBA development, I have purchased many, many reference books. Most of them have been very helpful. The Access 2000 Developers Handbook 2 Volumn Set surpasses all others in terms of width, breadth, and depth of information (as well as in sheer weight). Many development reference books contain CDs with freebies, code examples, etc. The CD in Volume 1 is the first one from which I have ever cut and paste code. The pop-up calendar in Chapter 8 and the CommonDlg class in Chapter 17 were most helpful. As stated in other reviews, these books are really for advanced developers and they are relatively expensive, but they literally paid for themselves the first time I opened them up for help.
These books are great resources for the Advanced Access Developer. Let me stress the word "Advanced". You should have a good understanding of Access and VBA before using these books or you may find yourself lost in a sea of overwelming information. The only real grip I have about the set is their size. I would have been willing to pay extra if the set were broken down into 4 easy to manage books instead of 2 monster 1000+ page books. At any rate if youre already comfortable with Access 2000, these books are a must have.
