Microsoft Access 97 Developer's Handbook
Review by Tom Anderson

To get the most out of this book, you should have experience with Access 97, including building basic forms, queries, and reports, and you should also have some experience with macros. With that background, you can get a lot from the Microsoft Access 97 Developer's Handbook. It's definitely not for a complete beginner.
    The book aims to instill a basic grounding in programming Microsoft Access, with a focus on Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).
    The first section provides a grounding in VBA. It's aimed at both novice programmers and more experienced developers coming from a different programming background. This includes the basics of creating procedures and also covers error handling, a topic most books leave to the end.
    Part two focuses on the user interface, using forms and controls to create a "typical" Windows application. Included here are discussions of event-driven programming and the Microsoft Access object model.
    Working with the data itself is covered in part three, and covers the Jet engine (Microsoft's database engine), DAO (data access objects), Access SQL (structured query language), manipulating data, implementing security, and much more.
    Finally, the fourth section covers ActiveX controls, OLE (object linking and embedding), creating Web pages from data, and even adding a custom browser to your application.
    I found the book a very thorough grounding in the essentials of Access. It has the usual bunch of typos and mistakes that require working through on your own, but they're not so difficult that they become a major frustration. It's helpful to understand variables, programming loops, and the other programming constants, but not essential. But be aware that the authors don't repeat themselves. You may find yourself reading and re-reading pages to get a complete understanding.
    One practice I found particularly helpful was how the authors first show a simple solution to a problem, then expand gradually on the functionality of the solution, and finally (often) turn it into a generic solution that can be added to your Access toolbox.
    This is a well-done text and worth your time if you have the experience required to understand it.

It was at the August 1998 meeting that my ticket won a copy of Photoshop 5.0 (PS5). Tom Anderson remembered in October and asked if I would be interested in reviewing a publication on the subject, and we finally connected at February's meeting. This review of Adobe Photoshop 5 Classroom in a Book is the result.
    Adobe writes this book for owners of Photoshop 5.0. I cast myself into terra incognita in two directions. The first, of course, is Photoshop. I have used many paint programs and am familiar with Adobe PageMaker, but never before a photo enhancement application quite like this. The second is that the style of this book requires a different kind of review. I take a new departure and give a diary of discovery.
    I begin on February 19. Three and one-half hours are spent on the introduction and the tour. I decide that a book review of one of the most powerful photo manipulators is not going to be easy. Still, I have one thing on my side. The authors of Adobe Photoshop 5 Classroom in a Book are the staff of Adobe (the makers of Photoshop 5.0).
    The introduction tells me what I already know, mostly that my system is too antiquated for the best performance. I have at least Photoshop 5.0's minimum requirements of Windows 95, 32 MB of RAM, 60 MB hard drive space, 8-bit (256 colors) display, CD-ROM, and a sound card (for the Photoshop Tour and Photoshop Training modules). So I dive in and take the Tour (also included with the product and so I am repeating what I once did). The tour is painless and easy to follow but the learning curve will apparently be steep.
    "In sequence" instructions guide me as I assemble three images into one and manipulate the look of the final image. Yet it is clear to me that I could not possibly repeat what I have just done on my own. Following the tour, thirteen chapters in the book are set up as lessons very much like you might receive in a classroom. So, they aptly name the book. Each lesson begins with the first steps of initializing the preferences file to defaults and loading lesson files for that lesson. Included with each is an end file so you can see what you are going to accomplish with that lesson.
    In the evening of August 19 I take lessons 1 and 2, "Getting to Know the Work Area" and "Working with Selections," in about three and one-half hours. Lesson 1 is a cursory look at the toolbox, mainly using its zoom features. Included is a review of using help files. I have the sense of breaking into something monumental, but I like Adobe's approach to starting a lesson. (It reminds me of my first computer programming class way back when. Where does one begin? With Start!)
    The authors tell which tools you will be using and which files should be opened to start each lesson. They might call lesson 2 "Mr. Potato Head." It uses the marquee, move, lasso, and magic wand tools to teach how to assemble a face composed of parts of fruits and vegetables. Do not make any mistakes when following their directions.

I got hopelessly lost twice, and had to begin again. The authors suggest saving your files frequently, so that work between saves is not lost (a good habit to get into anytime). As I become more familiar with Photoshop, mistakes should cease.
    On February 21, I begin lesson 3, "Layer Basics," and take four hours to complete. I find it "verrry interesting"! Manipulating layers is very tricky and gives great control over the result. Layering is not new to me, but the controls that Photoshop supplies for each layer and between layers are phenomenal. Another four and one-half hours and I have completed lesson 4, "Paint and Editing." The true power of this lesson book is the way in which the authors acquaint the reader with the potential of PS5. They cannot cover everything. That would be quite impossible in a book of this size. However, they do point the way in this lesson to painting and to correcting unwanted brush strokes. A nice job!
    I spend the next few days absorbing lessons 5, 6 and 7. The topics are "Masks and Channels," "Photo Retouching," and "Basic Pen Tool Techniques," respectively. Masks separate parts of an image, to change one part without damaging or changing another. Channels may be considered as different kinds of layers, except that they only store masks.
    Lesson 6 teaches how to turn a drab gray background sky into blue with clouds (like magic). It also explains how to brighten colors and bring out reflections with the use of filters (which can "paint" onto the image).
    Finally, lesson 7 gives me a new idea about pens. These tools do not operate in the conventional drawing sense although they may be applied as such. I believe these pens are more powerful because of their ability to conform to image outlines by placing points and giving direction to the line into and out of the point. I spent about two hours per chapter initially. Yet I could not help but play with these techniques for much longer. In fact, experimenting is the key to understanding this application. Be prepared to get taken in!
    So it is not until February 27 that I begin lesson 8. It delves into combining multiple images to create a more complex visual expression using guides, layers, masks, color and tonal adjustments. I had some trouble copying and pasting text effects, but solved the problem by treating each text box individually. That just means there is more than one way to solve a problem because of PS5's flexibility. I must be catching on, because this lesson only took an hour to complete! The next lesson, "Creating Special Effects," (like adding gradients or changing color balance and applying filters) was completed equally fast. It started with six similar squares enclosing two pears (a six-pack of pear pairs) to which differing effects are applied. The special effect possibilities are vast! Similarly, "Combining Illustrator Graphics and Images" (lesson 10) ended smoothly in about one hour and taught me how to make visible the results of combining artwork.
    The remaining three lessons move beyond the basic principles of the application itself. The discussions on "Preparing Images for Web Publication," "Preparing Images for Two-Color Printing," and "Ensuring and Printing Accurate Color" show how to prepare your work for whatever your plans require. Each of these lessons lasted about two hours and is self-explanatory. Lesson thirteen also describes how to use Adobe Gamma, a utility to calibrate your monitor. I ran Adobe Gamma and was impressed with the outcome. The clarity and brilliance of my monitor after the fact is really quite unbelievable.
    I completed the course in 30 (40?) hours by the end of the month. I am now in no way an expert, but I do have a good foundation and can be creative on my own. (I now have a sense of confidence I did not have with the user's guide alone.) So I am now embarking on an adventure that only time and practice can eventually master. Anyone else can do the same with this book.
    It might be well to note that Photoshop 5.0 works in RGB color mode. (It could not be otherwise because your monitor is a light source. Printed output, on the other hand, is the absorption of RGB. That is why your color printer prints in the CMYK spectrum.) In any case, lesson 13 also shows how to check for color loss when converting monitor art to printed art (RGB and CMYK spectrums do not exactly overlap).
    What this brings to mind is that all Photoshop really does on the surface is to manipulate bitmap pixels. It controls each pixel with respect to its color and opacity, to its relationship with other pixels near or far or similar, and combines that pixel with pixels in layers above and below. It does this in a simple way for understanding but is very complex and powerful.
    This book contributes greatly to the understanding and use of this potent tool. I highly recommend it. Even if you do not take your own digital photographs, you can play with other graphic forms. Photoshop loads or places images and stores them in many formats, including BMP, EPS, JPG, PCX, TGA, TIF, and many more. I have a Sony Digital Mavica, and so enter my photographs, JPG or BMP, directly into the computer.
    Included at the end of the book is a classroom with lessons for Adobe Image Ready, a tool for preparing graphics for the Web. As with Photoshop, the classroom began with a tour and followed with two lessons. Topics covered are optimizing, compression, animation, inserting text, batch processing, controlling the dither, and creating the HTML file. Since I do not presently own Image Ready, I could not participate in the lessons. However, they appear to be as thorough as the lessons about Photoshop. It is an unexpected bonus to an already excellent book.

Adobe Photoshop 5 Classroom in a Book
By the Adobe Development Team
[$45.00, 443 pages with CD]
Hayden Books/Adobe Press, 1998 
345 Park Ave.
San Jose, CA 95110-2704
408-536-6000
Fax 408-537-6000
www.adobe.com
ISBN 1-56830-466-8