The articles based on the Microsoft Office Access 2003 Inside Out book refer to three sample database applications — Wedding list, Housing Reservations, and LawTrack Contacts. Of the three, the LawTrack Contacts sample database application is available for downloading from Office Online. Download the LawTrack Contacts sample database at Access 2003 Sample: Inside Out Sample Files.

If you are interested in exploring the other two databases, you will need to buy the book.

LawTrack Contacts is a real application that was developed as part of a partnership with LawTrack Software Development (http://www.lawtrack.net/). It serves as both a contacts management and order entry database — two samples for the price of one!

Please note that the person names, company names, e-mail addresses, and Web site addresses in this application are all fictitious. Although the database is preloaded with sample data, it also includes a special form (zfrmLoadData) that contains code to load random data into the sample tables, based on parameters that you supply.

You can download the LawTrack Contacts database sample file at Access 2003 Sample: Inside Out Sample Files, and then follow along with the examples mentioned in the articles in the book; you can also use the examples to form the basis for your own work.

The sample assumes you have installed the Microsoft Office System, not just Access 2003. Several examples also assume that you have installed all optional features of Access through the Office 2003 setup program. If you have not installed these additional features, your screen might not match the illustrations in the articles, or you might not be able to run some of these examples.

Articles available on Office Online that are based on the Microsoft Office Access 2003 Inside Out book

Chapter 3, Designing your database application

Chapter 4, Creating your database and tables

Chapter 5, Modifying your table design

Chapter 24, The Finishing Touches

How do I buy the book?

Visit the Microsoft Learning Web site.

The samples mentioned in this article are from the book Microsoft Office Access 2003 Inside Out by John L. Viescas. For more information about how to buy this book, visit Microsoft Learning.