Novalis achieves her stated goal of writing a hands-on tutorial about macros. The book is aimed at intermediate-level users of Microsoft Access. Patient novices who have experience with other relational database systems can also use this book to learn to use Access and to write macros.

This book includes a floppy that contains a database, spreadsheet, and text file to teach users about macros, icons, and menus. I agree with the author that the best way to learn macros is to write macros. The illustrations and examples will help anyone learn the art of writing macros. The author explains relational database terminology and some concepts at a very high level, but there are other texts available for people who need more in-depth knowledge.

The book consists of 16 chapters and five appendices. The author teaches and analyzes concepts in five groups: the basics of macro programming and user interface design; the mechanics of looking up information and moving around through controls and records; skills for data entry; techniques for working with groups of records, including importing and archiving data; and topics in application design, including controlling the interface and protecting the application.

I recommend this book to anyone who needs to learn to use or write macros. Many books claim to be useful for self-study, but this book succeeds and is easy to follow. It is well illustrated, and readers learn by following and practicing with examples. Readers will also learn how and when to use Visual Basic for error prevention. The information in the appendices is better organized and explained than the vendor’s documentation, so I also recommend this book as a supplemental reference guide.