Thisiswherewetrytoconvinceyoutobuythisbook,tellyouwhatittriestodo, define a few terms and generally set the scene – all of which makes this more like an introduction than a first chapter, but no-one reads introductions so we called it a chapter. If you have already bought the book and know what it does, feel free to skip to Chapter 2 where the action starts. Whyshouldyoubuythisbook? TherearemanyAccessbooksonthemarket,whyshouldIbuythisone?Doesithavemore informationthananyotherbook? Errr, no, it actually has less than the big reference books you’ll also find on the shelf. So,isitverycheap? Well, it isn’t as expensive as some but, no, it isn’t particularly cheap either. Tobebrutallyfrank,you’renotdoingagreatjobofsellingthistome. Right, time for the hard sell. Bill worked for Microsoft as the Development Manager for the first three versions of Access. I (Mark) work as a database consultant, teach database theory and practice at two Universities and have written the UK Personal ComputerWorld’s database column for more than ten years. We met (at a database conference, not unreasonably, given our interests) in the summer before Access 1. 0 was launched and found that we shared similar views on how databases should be designed and built. Since then we have writtenabooktogetherabouttherelationalmodelthatunderliesAccessandall other relational database systems (see below for the inevitable plug). But why write a book about Access itself when there are already so many around? 3 1 Introduction Well, since Bill was in charge of the product’s development, it was fair to assume that we had the technical side reasonably well covered.