Textbook Review

Textbook Review

I think that the textbook was what the title said. The Complete Reference. It was not a textbook for a structured learning approach. The text is more for a user familiar with Access Dababase and to be used as a reference. The text was complete in the aspect of covering all the bases in explaining all of the various types of queries and events and other such topics. There was really nothing that I could not find in the text, but when I wanted an example of a concept, maybe formatted in a step by step context to learn a specific procedure, there could have been clearer examples and/or margin notes highlighting such concepts.

I found the writing of the text very easily understood and complete. The author’s style of writing was not so technical that you were running for other sources to explain material, but was in depth enough to explain the topic in full. Even on more technical aspects, when I needed to reread a passage, it was to better grasp the concept rather than a non-understanding of the material.

In some of the more advanced concepts, besides simply stating the topic and giving a definition of the term or concept, an actual example presented as an explanation might have been helpful. It is here that I feel that the CD could have been vastly more valuable. When I initially opened the CD to look at the files I thought to myself, “This is all there is? Why waste the time making the CD?” Two database files with some associated pictures and graphics, not specifically referenced in the text to a great degree, is not my idea of a data disk to accompany a text/reference, especially of this size and completeness. A specific data file corresponding to each chapter would have been very helpful, especially when settings to achieve a specific task needed to be set. A user could have then accessed the file and the properties for such details.