I need an Access book that is [u]easy to understand</u>, but handles some of the complex stuff I need to know. Any ideas?
What would be nice would be an actual case book that would take you through step-by-step. Northwind, the Access sample, is pretty neat, but it lacks some bells and whistles that I am trying to achieve.

What is the complex stuff you need to know? What parts do you want to be easy to understand?

Like, you might get a book on database design, and one on Access forms and reports, kind of thing.

mmcdonal

Thanks for the reply. I want something that shows me how to do some of the things I have just asked. I have just dabbled a bit in Visual Basic and am not an expert. I have gone to the local bookstore and have gotten the 4-inch thick Access books that start with how to design a table. What I would like to see is a casebook of problems that have been solved, complete with simple explanations and screen captures taking me through the whole process.

For example, you gave me a great reply about the combo boxes. I will do my best to try to follow it. I would love to have a book that took me through it step-by-step, showing me the whole process in pictures and words.

The problem you will find is that if it has pictures, it is for users. Most Access books, while laid out in the usual order of things, are reference works.
The closest you may get are ... don't tell them I told you this ... O'Reilly Cookbooks and Hack books, and one book by MS Press called "Building Microsoft Access Applications". Wrox also has a good one, although somewhat limited in scope: "Expert One-on-One Microsoft Access Application Development."

Otherwise, I think that is why most people post here, is that there doesn't seem to be anything like you want, especially with pictures.


mmcdonal

There are many different books out there and everyone learns differently.

I have personally found the following to be very helpful. It covers many different subjects and has you enter the code on a step by step process. Basically, walking you through the process. It does a great job at explaining what is happening at each step.

http://www.wordware.com/Merchant2/me...ode=1556222238

And I think you can even find it cheaper on Amazon.

Cheers,

John

Do any of these books explain cascading combination boxes? I need a step by step because I can't get mine to work using online help.

Thanks

what do you mean by cascading combo boxes?

one combo boxes results based on the chosen field in another?

The answers are posted all over the net which do work. However there is one issue - what type of form are you using the combo boxes on?

As I understand it, right or wrong, its generally not possible to have cascading combo boxes on continous or datasheet forms. Building MS Access Applications book does give an explanation and an example of how to do this however I've never managed to replicate it successfully.

one combo boxes results based on the chosen field in another?
YES, I want the second combo box to filter based on the selection made in the first box. I have a simple databse I create to "play" with this. The second filters based on the first, however, the field names can not be seen in the drop down once the second filters. AGH!

These 2 combo boxes are in a regular form.

ok, using this scenario, picking the category then selecting the product

product category =cboprodcat
product = cboproduct

private sub cboprodcat_afterupdate()
me.cboproduct.requery
end sub

private sub cboproduct_beforeupdate()
me.cboprodcat.requery
end sub

make sure the category key in the query for product is set to me.cboprodcat

That works for me.

For books try "access hacks" and "fixing access annoyances" reasonably cheap from amazon

There's no one book that will solve all your problems with access