[AccessD] Tech books ...

<Yeah but are there 20000 people out there who want to spend $50 to read it.
>

That, of course, is the real question. Many things never get done because
they've never been done, an infinite loop until some writer/publisher has
the courage (or temporary insanity spell)to give it a go. If it works,
presto, a dozen "me toos" appear. Seriously, in this case I've seen few
Access/Excel how-toos for financial power user types. Most Access books are
either written for the rank begineer ("here is a table, it is your friend")
or computer professionals ("here is the code for generating a faster than
light engine with modules that take advantage of the undocumented 5th and
6th dimensions of the windows API"). 

There are a LOT of financial types who are using Excel to produce financial
reports who are constantly yearning for more power. Maybe I could help lead
them to the promised land (for a fee of course) :-))

Jim H 

-----Original Message-----
From: Mwp.Reid at Queens-Belfast.AC.UK
[mailto:Mwp.Reid at Queens-Belfast.AC.UK]
Sent: Friday, March 21, 2003 3:15 PM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Tech books ...


Yeah but are there 20000 people out there who want to spend $50 to read it. 
You write what the publishers will apy for and they will pay for what sells.

If they felt there was a market for the book then they would go with it.

Writing a book even a beginners books is no easy task.

Martin


Quoting "Hale, Jim" <jim.hale at fleetpride.com>:

> <As there are millions of Excel and Access power users through
> developers -
> and sometimes they
>      will be doing other apps - eg. Excel to Access >
> 
> Hmm.....I've spent the last year developing an Access/Excel
> Planning/financial reporting system currently being used by a 150 store,
> 400
> million sales company. This includes creating  Excel planning
> templates
> (with store history)from within Access. After the templates are
> completed
> the  finished plan data is uploaded back into Access. The system also
> includes downloading historical/plan/forecast data from linked AS400
> tables
> into Excel spreadsheets for board reports, downloading into pivot
> tables,
> consolidations, etc. 
> 
> It seems to me the Access books don't discuss in depth techniques for
> interacting with Excel. The Excel books are no better. They all have
> the
> obligatory "Access/Excel can be used with other office products" chapter
> and
> a little obligatory code. My idea is to write a book discussing
> techniques
> for using Excel with Access. I would use my system as the example and
> include the whole thing on the book's disk. The problem, as Tom points
> out,
> is that you can't very well teach all of Access and Excel and cover
> the
> system's code techniques in a single book. Do any of you think there
> would
> be any interest in a book like this or is it overkill? Would anyone be
> interested in a Access based planning and financial reporting system?
> Susan,
> any thoughts?
> Jim Hale
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tom Adams [mailto:tomadatn at bellsouth.net]
> Sent: Friday, March 21, 2003 8:25 AM
> To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
> Subject: [AccessD] Tech books ...
> 
> 
> To the whizzes that write books in this list.
> 
> A recent post that said they learned better from examples than from
> reading
> books brought up a point I've been meaning to make.  I
> know the publishers push you to include all Access user levels in your
> books
> so more will sell.  However that means that 80% of the
> book is useless for moderate to advanced readers.
> 
> There are two points I'd like to point out (neither of which has a
> chance of
> making it).
> 1.  Have a few overly documented examples if you will - but include a
> bunch
> of heavy duty
>      code for examples for the advanced programmers - with little or
> no
> comments.  The documented
>      examples in books are usually too simple to be very useful.  Real
> code
> will teach most
>      developers without the comments.
> 
> 2.  As there are millions of Excel and Access power users through
> developers
> - and sometimes they
>      will be doing other apps - eg. Excel to Access, Excel to VB, Access
> to
> VB and/or VB to Access,
>      Access to Sql Server and Sql Server to Jet - consider writing a
> From X
> to Y Dictionary.  Eg.
>      From Access to VB, From Jet to Sql Server, etc.
> 
>      I've moved into VB for the last 6 months and would have paid
> almost
> anything for an Access to Vb
>      book.  Eg. Combo Box.  What a pain in VB.  Can't tell you how long
> this
> took me to figure out.
>      Makes me want to find one of the Access guys at Microsoft and give
> them
> my first born child (I
>      know, I know - she's a teenager and that's a punishment worse
> than
> death to inflict on anyone but
>      the thought is grateful.)
> 
>      I find that I know exactly what I want to do in Access but the
> differences are often difficult to figure
>      out.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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