Microsoft Books

If you are looking for a brief introduction to C# this is not your book. But if you are seriously interested in improving your skills in any area, this is definitely the book to have on your shelf.
Great job.

'Professional C# 2008' is one of those ginormous books that I usually (usually) complain is too big, too bloated, too MUCH but sometimes the exception is the rule and that is the case here. With 1750+ pages of material spread over 48 chapters and 3 appendixes, if you are looking for brevity and/or a simple learning book this is probably not for you. If you are looking for a complete solution on learning C# from top to bottom, keep reading because you are in the right place.

Although it's lengthy, I feel a chapter listing is beneficial to detail out all the details of this book:

01. .NET Architecture
02. C# Basics
03. Objects and Types
04. Inheritance
05. Arrays
06. Operators and Casts
07. Delegates and Events
08. Strings and Regular Expressions
09. Generics
10. Collections
11. Language Integrated Query (LINQ)
12. Memory Management and Pointers
13. Reflection
14. Errors and Exceptions
15. Visual Studio 2008
16. Deployment
17. Assemblies
18. Tracing and Events
19. Threading and Synchronization
20. Security
21. Localization
22. Transactions
23. Windows Services
24. Interoperability
25. Manipulating Files and the Registry
26. Data Access
27. LINQ to SQL
28. Manipulating XML
29. LINQ to XML
30. .NET Programming with SQL Server
31. Windows Forms
32. Data Binding
33. Graphics with GDI+
34. Windows Presentation Foundation
35. Advanced WPF
36. Add-Ins
37. ASP.NET Pages
38. ASP.NET Development
39. ASP.NET AJAX
40. Visual Studio Tools for Office
41. Accessing the Internet
42. Windows Communication Foundation
43. Windows Workflow Foundation
44. Enterprise Services
45. Message Queuing
46. Directory Services
47. Peer-to-Peer Networking
48. Syndication

Subject matter is extremely thorough, and the writing is right to the point. Full of usable examples and traditional (good) Wrox design, you will be able to use chapters piece mail to get the information you are looking for or read the book from beginning to end if you want the whole experience.

I feel that this book is best for marginal/new C# developers who aren't intimidated by a tome of this size. There is lots of great information within and you certainly learn what makes C# such a fantastic language to use in today's world.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Form so many books, this is best I have ever seen. And if you need to know why the transaction happens, then go the Juval Lowy's book.

this books offers very good insight to the introducing the
beginner to transactions
There are 10 chapters in this book of which I have covered 9
chapters in 2 days

chapter 5 the nwtshipper's applications breaks when
the web service attempts to create a shippercomponent during
and add method call

In chapter 6 the customer entry. the famouse cauliflowers aka com+ objects are never activated/spins during a transaction.
Maybe because they are deactivated or not using pooling.

I am on the last chapter 10 works but lacks alot of instructions
on how to set it up,
but after 2 days of hacking i finally got it to work
and when it worked, it was like magic..

This must be the only book I have in my possession which
demonstrations transactions in .net

I would like to give this book 5 stars but since the poor setup
instructions in chapter 10 I have to give it a 4 stars instead.
Authors.. Good job!!!

Real Life Examples That Work - And More

The book was well written and easy to follow. The descriptions and examples of code were the best and most concise of any I have read in .NET. But the best part, was that it also covered the material in the four previous Beginning VB/ASP books I have read, but in a more understandable and memorable way.

This is a gem of a book!

Ever get frustrated looking for a book that has a decent discussion on transactions? So many have half a dozen pages and a kiddie's transaction example about a bank that only ever has one customer that only ever does one transaction & of course it succeeds: great!

This is different - it's real! It's a book all about real-transactions and the things you need to know that support them - heaps of juicy nitty-gritty details. It's great to get into a meaty discussion about distributed architecture, but where the fun really starts is in designing transactional .NET DLL' s.

Apart from all the great information, another thing that comes across in the book is just how lucky we are as VB developer's to be using .NET - the power is awesome!

This book was very helpful in my introduction to Access, as well as in my review of other Microsoft programs. The tutorials are easy to follow, unlike those in other books I had tried. I recommend this book to anyone trying to learn or brush up on Microsoft programs.

This book is a great reference for the entire MS Office 2000 applications. I needed to learn Access in a hurry and found the section to be precise and informative and to be just what I needed. The tutorial was very good and after completing the exercise, one comes away with a confidence of knowing that they do, indeed, "know" how to set up and run a database.

The book covers Word, Excel, Access, Publisher, FrontPage, PowerPoint, and Outlook. I also needed some clarification in Excel and Word and also found those sections to be just as helpful and informative.

This is a great "quick" book and it does not cover everything. If someone is seeking more detailed information, then they really need to consult another book, which would provide more detailed information. But for the true basics, this book is great!

I am very happy that I invested my money in this book because my students have been using Microsoft Office 2000 and have learned so much because it helps you through the whole learning process step...by...step. It is ideal for classroom instructor led training and for at home self-pace study. Plus the new low price is great.

For those who need to learn Microsoft Office 2000 now, this is the best book to get. The lessons are very easy to follow, with step-by-step instructions in plain English and charts to illustrate examples. You won't be dissapointed at all with this study book!

An excellent explanation of what bandwidth is all about and what it means. Gives information not found in textbooks or industry documents. Answers such questions as why digital isn't always better than analog. Very well organized and treats subjects such as audio bandwidth and video bandwidth in different chapters. Filled with interesting tidbits, the book makes for some excellent reading. Some will see the book as leisure reading, others as something more serious. I saw it as both!

Wow, this is the best book I've ever read on a technological subject. If you are a non-technical person and want to know how your phone, cell phone, fax, modem,TV, radio, internet work in layman's terms; this is your book!. Better yet the book does all that in under 200 pages. Oh yeah, it also tells explains bandwidth and how we're never going to have enough despite what you may have heard about the coming "broadband revolution".

Although I've been involved in professional video production for the last 25 years in the non-technical area, I finally understand how a TV signal is transmitted and received after reading this book. I take back all the bad things I ever said about Microsoft, because they're the ones who published this outstanding book. I'm sadden that the author has past away. He had a unique ability to take very complicated stuff and explain it to liberal arts majors like myself and it's too bad he won't be around to write more. His clear thinking and economy of words is in very short supply in the technical book area...kind of like bandwidth.

If you've ever been puzzled by bandwidth or wanted to know more about it, this book is for you. For most of us, bandwidth is how much information we can get in front of us how quickly. But how does it happen? How can the same piece of copper wire that carries a low-grade voice signal to us at a mere four thousand bits per second also carry a high-quality mixture of images and text, even motion video, at over a million bits per second? What's the difference between the original bandwidth of radio broadcast frequency bands and bandwidth as we usually read about it in the popular media? Lu starts from the beginning, not neglecting the Stone Age, and carries us through the telegraph (including a widely-used system we had never heard of called the optical telegraph) into today's computer and telecommunication networks. In two chapters, "Thinking about Bandwidth" and "Looking at Bandwidth," he provides fascinating comparisons of bandwidths, proving, among other things, that it would be 640,000 times faster to fly 6 million CD-ROMs to Europe on a Boeing 747 than to upload them over the European E-1 lines under the Atlantic. But the book is practical, too, containing compact tables that define and compare various bandwidth measurements, starting with the hertz (cycles per second) for analog bandwidth and bps (bits per second) for digital bandwidth. Two chapters explain broadcast bandwidth, audio and video, the latter including brief explanations of TV standards, cable TV, color TV, and satellite TV. Datacasting is explained, too - how non-video data can be carried along with the video signal. In another long chapter, Lu explains Point-to-Point (rather than broadcast) Bandwidth, both wired and wireless transmission media and methods. A final chapter, devoted to bandwidth on the Internet, compares in human terms the ways to access the Internet (ISDN, DSL, cable modems, and wireless and satellite). Lu, the former science and technology editor for the Children's Television Workshop in the U.S., hopes that future bandwidth growth will be filled by better science content for children. He wonders whether bandwidth will be shared fairly among the world's peoples, rich and poor. He notes that bandwidth bottlenecks will persist and that the amount of bandwidth required for widespread video-on-demand and full-motion videoconferencing is not likely to arrive in this generation.

Cary Lu, a well-known science writer and editor, died shortly before the book was completed and final sections were written by his friends, New York Times computer columnist Stephen Manes and Adam Engst, author of the Internet Starter Kit series. Without in any way stinting on the details, this book aims for the general reader who needs help with technical explanations. It's also written by someone who has thought carefully about the significance of bandwidth. At whatis.com, where we continually fine-tune our definition of bandwidth, The Race for Bandwidth is a book that we have been unconsciously waiting for. Now that it's here, we plan to keep it very handy.

A great read -- very informative, not too technical (or, more properly, technical, but without jargon), and wide-ranging. Stephen Manes and Adam Engst deserve our thanks for shepherding it to completion after Cary Lu's death in 1997.

I find it unfortunate that the book is published as part of Microsoft Press's "Strategic Technology" series, whose other titles seem to be much more geek-specific: "Understanding ActiveX and OLE", "Understanding Electronic Commerce", "Understanding Intranets". Perhaps they are also aimed at a general audience, but since Lu's book covers so much about non-computing activities such as telegraphy, broadcasting, telephones, and even shipping and air flight -- stuff that should be interesting to people who aren't that computer-focused -- it seems that it's been relegated to a publishing ghetto from which it deserves to escape.

The cover doesn't help much, describing it as the "guide to key technologies behind fast Internet connectivity, wireless communications, video conferencing, and interactive television." It's more than that. It's a guide to so much that we use already today, not just these technologies of most people's future. The most interesting sections for me so far have discussed FM radio and shutter telegraphs, for instance.

This book should not live in the Computing section of bookstores, but in the general science section. It will surely outlive every other title in the

"Strategic Technology" series, because it deals with more universal topics in a less time-limited way. It would be sad to see it in the ubiquitous computer title remainder bins in a year or two, when it should really continue to be printed like other wonderful general science books such as James Gleick's "Chaos" or Stephen Jay Gould's essay collections.

It's also a shame that Lu wasn't around to promote the book. I think it could have reached a wider audience if he were able to do the promotional and talk-show circuit to entice people with its broad scope and easy fascination.

Don't think of this as just another "neato new technology" book. The book is good enough and concise enough that I read it voraciously in a little over a day. It's a miracle of brevity that rivals Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style" guide to writing good English, and E. Annie Proulx's novels.

I'm amazed at how much is packed into a relatively slim volume, and how much of that information likely won't require revision for a long time. In particular, the early chapters discussing what bandwidth is and how it plays into the history of communications are, with a few exceptions such as pricing examples, pretty timeless.

Other sections seem (understandably, given the author's death before completion) a bit rushed and muddled, and could use clearing up. Some of the discussions of digital cell phone technology, and particularly granularity, seem dropped in from somewhere else, without proper context or explanation -- as if surrounding parts were missing.

The glossary is sometimes helpful, sometimes tautological -- having separate listings for each acronym, when the full definition is often a line or two away, also seems redundant.

Despite its flaws, I encourage you to buy it sight unseen. Not only will it outlast most more expensive technology titles you could purchase, it will give you a broad understanding which those books can't touch.

Even if you work for the phone company and live and breathe bandwidth every day, you'll certainly learn something -- such as why the world's best AM radio is made in New Zealand, that 18th century French optical telegraphs had bandwidths of a fraction of a bit per second, or that someone with graduate degrees in Physics and Biology once worked on "Sesame Street".

Zac's, presentation & content, is a model of good writing. The bonus tools in Chapter 11, for modifying the Auto Format Template were unexpected, but truly appreciated, as was all the other bonus content. One look at the ACWZUSR12.ACCDU (AutoFormatFile) was enough to understand why the tool was constructed.
The Template project, "Contacts Modified Template"; is the working model, it also provides the insight of how the templates hidden files systems interact, without the usual macro security issues. Part 3 provides you with the necessary XML Schemas needed for building a Template production model.
Zac also provides links to additional learing resourcs.
Green eggs and Ham to Zac & the Access Team,
Thanks

Zac Woodall's book provides an excellent introduction to creating and sharing Microsoft Access database templates. It's a wonderful reference for anyone who needs to occasionally or regularly design or develop Access templates.

Zac's book focuses on how to build Access Templates using the new Access 2007 program. He covers this topic from the ground up so if you want to know anything and everything about creating templates, this is definitely the book you want.

Zac brings a unique perspective into this technical manual by helping you understand the thought processes that the development team went through when designing the template architecture for Access 2007. His writing is not only insightful, but Zac also has a gift for energizing the written word. Like any well written published work, Zac keeps you interested in the topic at hand and makes you not want to put the book down.

Great work Zac!

I immensely enjoyed reading this book. It is a great introduction on how to use/work with the new Microsoft Access 2007 template feature. The author's writing style and humor ensure that you keep focused and interested in the sometimes dry technical material.

Would recommend it to any developer who wants to fully take advantage of the Access 2007 release.

I have been involved in architecting and designing Microsoft based business intelligence solutions for the past 8 years. I was very excited when PerformancePoint was launched because it filled a very real need in the Microsoft BI platform. It is always a challenge to find training material when a new product is launched so Adrian and Nick's books have been released at just the right time.
I enjoyed both books(The Rational Guide To Monitoring and Analyzing with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 (Rational Guides),The Rational Guide To Planning with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 (Rational Guides)) for the following reasons:
They are clear and simple to understand
They highlight the most important techinical and functional considerations without being too high level
They are practical and not theoretical even though the first few chapters set the scene
You don't need to be a subject matter expert to understand them
They are short so you can read them very quickly

They are great books that will allow you to get up to speed very quickly on PerformancePoint Monitoring and Analytics as well as Planning.

Highly recommended! Barclay and Downs have written a fine and very accessible book, which fulfills the Rational Guide promise - not of being technical bibles, but of being straightforward learning guides - in this case, to a user-friendly yet sophisticated business intelligence / performance management front-end development platform. Although the book does not intend to teach any BI back-end development, it provides just enough context so that readers without those skills will move forward without difficulty. On that note, the book also does a reasonable job of mapping PPS's not-completely-consistent terminology with that of its ideal back-end, SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services.

Part I -- Introduction: The authors begin by convincingly introducing Performance Management as a strategic business challenge and an emerging discipline. They describe how PerformancePoint Server (PPS) 2007 delivers on that challenge and then correctly emphasize that multi-dimensional (business intelligence) underlying data architecture is an optimum foundation upon which to fully leverage PPS and build a Performance Dashboard that satisfies users.

Part II -- Elements: Separate chapters are dedicated respectively to Data Sources, Indicators (visual icons), Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Scorecards, Reports, and Dashboards. Each chapter effectively combines a series of clear, succinct explanations of concepts and best practices followed by thoughtful step-by-step practice. Chapter 5 on Data Sources is an illuminating start, introducing how easily data from multiple sources can be integrated, with subsequent chapters reinforce it. Chapter 7 on KPI's is strong, with careful attention to theory and configuration of KPI target metrics, leaf, non-leaf and objective-KPIs, and thresholds. It also offers a simple workaround to a known glitch with multiple targets per KPI. Chapter 8 on Scorecards demonstrates the ease of Scorecard creation from solid KPI's and illustrates the payoff from good KPI naming. Chapter 9 on Reports adequately introduces, among other items, Analytic Charts and Grids (think next-gen pivot tables and pivot charts), Trend Analysis Charts (handy data mining time-series analyses), and what looks like a revolution in performance process-visualization, Visio Strategy Maps. Although I would have enjoyed an intro to Excel Services in Office SharePoint Server 2007 as an alternative BI front-end, it is, admittedly, a separate product. For help with ProClarity, which is included in PPS licensing, you need to buy a ProClarity book. Chapter 10 on Dashboard elements themselves is also effective, and the following sections -- on pages, zones, filters, display condition links, filter links, time intelligence and simply time-period specification (STPS) language -- are notably effective because, as elsewhere, the authors inform the reader just enough, then moving adeptly through a step-by-step practice sections that, as elsewhere, drive home the knowledge. Although the book provides adequate references to where multidimensional expressions (MDX) will afford more sophisticated features (eg. custom KPI data-mapping, custom reports and grids, filter link formulae), it, of course, does not presume to try to build readers' MDX skills.

Part III - Implementation and Mgmt: Chapters 11 and 12, respectively on Deploying to SharePoint and Security, briefly cover just the basics. Importantly, as a welcome enhancement from "Business Scorecard Manager" (predecessor product), PPS Dashboards are deployed to SharePoint (or other portals) as already integrated solutions needing little additional configuration.

Bonus -- The bonus materials, available via web to registered readers, are all worth downloading. Bonus Chapter Two - Designing an Effective Performance Management Solution, should be required reading for most or all project stakeholders. Bonus Chapter Three - (KPI) Scoring, addresses, importantly, how child KPI's rollup to parent KPI's, especially in the context of the preferred threshold banding method, "Band by normalized value of Actual/Target".

Prepare your PC -- Perhaps the best way to deploy the entire platform to readers' PC's for learning and even light-development purposes is -- in light of the sheer amount of required software -- to download the following items from Microsoft.com: (1) Virtual PC 2007; and (2) BI-VPC 5.1, which includes PPS, MOSS, SQL Server 2005 Dev and much more. Lastly and importantly, I discourage readers' from attempting to use BI-VPC on a PC with under 2GB RAM. 2GB is slow but works. 4GB works well.

Nick Barclay and Adrian Downes have authored their second book in the Rational Guide series entitled The Rational Guide to Monitoring and Analyzing with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007. Their first book was The Rational Guide to Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005, which I've also read and found to be very useful.

The book begins with a description of what Performance Management is and the role it plays in business organizations. They also introduce PerformancePoint Monitoring's component architecture with easy-to-follow illustrations, discuss key terminology and cover the BI stack of Microsoft products that support and interact with PerformancePoint Server 2007. All of this is done in the first 45 pages.

The authors use the remaining 200 pages to walk you through installation and configuration (both stand-alone and distributed installs) as well as the primary elements: data sources, KPIs, indicators, scorecards, reports, and dashboards. Following that is a section on implementing and managing dashboards, and a final chapter which addresses security settings and management.

What I like best about this book is that Nick and Adrian respect the reader's time. There is no excess verbiage. Each word carries its own bags and pays its own way. Chapters average about 30 pages each and are filled with illustrations, tips, and step-by-step procedures to do everything from setting Threshold Boundaries on KPIs to writing MDX code for a Time Intelligence filter.

As one of the Microsoft technical writers who worked on PerformancePoint Monitoring since its inception, I'm happy to say that I've found Barclay and Downes book to be comprehensive without being overwhelming, with clear directions and a firm grasp of the products' capabilities.

When I first started trying to work with Business Scorecard Manager (BSM) I found a terrific little book (Rational Guide) by Nick Barclay and Adrian Downes which saved me a ton of time.

Happily the PerformancePoint Monitoring product is intrinsically better than BSM and hence a little easier to understand on its own terms, but none the less this new Rational Guide is a very valuable resource for anybody tasked with working with this product.

I don't know if I should credit the authors or their editor at Rational Press, but their books seem to always hit sweet spot of providing all of the important information you need without being burdened with a bunch of filler that obscures the gems (which I think is the case with many technical books).

Bottom line: If you need to work with this product get this book.

In my work as a technical editor, I've had reason to review many of the other 800+-page books available on Excel 97. This one stands out, far and away, as the top reference available. It covers more than any of the other titles, and does so more thoroughly. For example, this is the only book I've found that covers creating custom numeric formats.

This book covers all the features of EXCEL 97 very clearly with good examples.

Unfortunately the support page for the WEB material has gone ...END

This book covers all the features of EXCEL'97 in detail. It begins at the beginning (What is a toolbar?)and goes on to Visual Basic. The main drawback of a book of this type is that it concentrates on describing features one after the other. Like reading a dictionary, knowing a lot of words doesn't mean you are developing fluency.

An exception to this remark is the last chapter in the book "Sample Visual Basic Application". I'm a novice in this area, so experts might not agree with me. But I found this example really got my imagination. It describes a project that picks up data from an outside monitoring station on a regularly updated basis, puts it into EXCEL, generates a regularly updated chart, and makes a report using WORD. The entire sequence is automatic. This example puts EXCEL to work with other applications in a complex project showing me what is possible. Variations on this theme could be used for many other projects.

Sometimes the Microsoft book is good and sometimes it isn't- this time it's the best. The book is a catalog of everything, with clear instructions. There's no need to read it cover to cover, though that will give you lots of ideas for what can be done. Just look in the index when you need something and flip back to the clear instructions and helpful illustrations. The book's pretty hefty, so the included book-on-CD is the best way to tote it around as a reference. Keep the CD at work for surreptitious reference and be the office Excel expert!

I found lots of good explanations in this book of many of the NT features. Good reference book to have -- it even tells you how to add a harddrive, setup networking, RAS, optimizing, and security. Good book to have around

Just bought this book today and it looks concise and helpful in installing and maintaining NT 4.0 Workstation.

At first I thought this book would be too simple and basic, but by the third chapter I realized that this book has lots of meat in it, and numerous solutions to tricky problems. I also use it as a reference since it answers questions about NT, hard drives, device configuration, etc.

If you use NT much you probably want this on your shelf, well organized, easy to follow, and fairly complete instructions on numerous NT topics

I found this book to be one of the best references out there for securing our systems. Having been through SOX audits I am always looking for the best and most thorough resources. I found this book to be a very good resource because it's comprehensive and easy to follow, everything the IT security specialist needs!

This is the book you need if you want to lock down TS and make sure you are not a conduit of disaster. Secure your network NOW!...HENCH

I picked up a copy of this book the day it came out and I'm so happy I did. Security is a must in IT today but in a Terminal Services / Citrix world it is even more important! Roddy's book taught me things not only did I not know but he reminded me about things I did know but have just not put in to place for numerous reasons. I highly recommend this book to anyone who deploys and/or maintains a Citrix / Terminal Server farm. It is simply awesome! 5 starts all the way!!! - Douglas A. Brown, Microsoft MVP - Terminal Services

I have in the past and continue today to complain about a lack of good and timely books on Terminal Services and Citrix. I have to confess this book has proved to be an exception! This book is concise, accurate and describes really advanced concepts in Terminal services and security in a language that is very accessible and then walks you through implementing those concepts in the real world. What a concept- A book I can actually use in my professional career! Other authors out there, please take note. I urge IT professionals and others interested in Terminal Services and Security to take a serious look at this book.

I was initially surprised by the structure of this book. It starts with an introduction on user interface principles, then in goes into the mechanics of user interface implementation in .NET, then it veers into databases. This is where I thought I was lost, but actually it turns out that it's the anchor for the sections that follow, which show how how databases are linked to the UI and how that is done effectively. In this way I think the book is different than any other technology centric book on .NET user interfaces, which only cover the API portion of the problem.

On the whole I am impressed by this book. I think it takes a fresh look at the entire topic. In addition it's well written and not overly illustrated. It's a unique book, so I recommend a look before you buy, but I certainly recommend the look.

The one quality that makes this book a clear winner is the quality of the content and clarity of author Rebecca Riordan's writing. She uses a friendly, humorous, often bitingly sarcastic voice that eases the normal tension accompanying such a complex topic as UI design for Windows applications with .NET technologies. You'll appreciate this tone as Riordan takes you through some very challenging scenarios in developing winning desktop apps.

The main focus is on presentation tier technologies and techniques used to create great programs that customers will really enjoy using. The book starts out with five phenomenally-written chapters on GDI+, typography, color, and image programming that every developer working with .NET should read, whether they're examining UI design for desktop applications, or otherwise. It also includes a helpful glossary of development terms mentioned throughout the text that you'll enjoy and refer to often.

Riordan also attempts to demystify the many complexities of .NET databinding within Windows Forms. as do most Addison-Wesley texts, the book's physical properties are to be appreciated, using sturdy binding and thick paper, making the book close and sit easily after a session open on your lap (and who hasn't wrecked at least book doing so?).

The only downside to this book (and a minor one at that) is the exclusive presentation of code in Visual Basic .NET, which would make the book largely one-dimensional to programmers working with that language (or liberal minded C# readers). But programming language semantics aside, this is a real gem, and one you'll want to pickup for your WinForms team projects.

A formidably detailed and comprehensive attack on the problem of user interfaces and data visualisation. Riordan tackles this in the context of Microsoft's .NET platform. Notice the two topics. There are books on pure UI design, for various operating systems. Nothing wrong with that. But they tend to concentrate on the strict visuals and how the user interacts with various widgets. Usually, any data to be displayed or modified is general and lacks much structure.

There are certainly elements of this approach here. Like where Riordan discusses the various properties of fonts and faces, or colours or different image types.

But she goes further. She shows how to make UIs customised for SQL data. To make your SQL Server easily accessible. A full workout. From using the widget families that come with .NET and hooking these all the way back to a SQL Server. In, for example, a four tier architecture. Unusual to see all this in one book. PLus, she makes VB seem very easy to design and program in.

Seeing Data: Designing User Interfaces for Database Systems Using .NET is an amazing book for anyone designing a user interface (UI) to allow users to display and edit data. It is very specifically focused on .NET WinForms development, however much of the information is useful for all developers.

Starting with coverage of the basics, like fonts, colors, etc., the book moves on to how to display and allow proper editing of various data types. This is very much a needed book, since the Microsoft User Interface standards book has not been updated since 1999. A lot has happened since 1999 in the Microsoft world, and the advice Rebecca offers comes from a lot of hard-won experience.

I do not do a great deal of Windows Forms development, but when I do, I will keep this book nearby.