Kind regards,
Dennis

It looks as though Access 2007 will keep its limitation of 255 columns. How in the heck is Excel and Access integration going to work when Excel can hold 16K columns.

One more nail in Access’ coffin.

I typically use Excel as the presentation layer (outputs, reports, summaries, etc…)

I’m still one of those who thinks that 1 million rows is a bad idea….but let’s not start that thread again

What really is annoying is the strong relation between Excel 2007 and SQL Server…

Kind regards,
Dennis

In my mind, there were three good reasons to use Access:

1: Volume of data
2: The need for a relational database
3: The need for a small applications that can be turned around quickly

Let’s see what’s new in Excel:

1: Excel now has the capacity to hold 1M rows and over 16K columns. In the past, Access was used
as the backend database to VB and Visual Studio projects. With the expanded Excel and SQL
Express Edition 2005, developers now have more robust choices for their backend database.

2: Analysis Services is now built into Excel giving users direct access to the ultimate
relational database – SQL server. Not to mention easy to use connectivity to other OLTPs.

3: As for applications in Excel: Bovey, Bullen and Green shows us the possibilities in PED.

It’s clear that Excel 2007 will be the central pillar of the new Office system. In the future, it will make far more sense to create a robust Visto-SQL2005-Excel application than to create an Access application.

I started moving away from Access in 2002 with the launch of .Net. I still believe that Access still makes sense for small organizations who don’t have the resources or the development skills for these more robust tools.

In the end, I think Access will survive for a few versions, but things don’t look good for it’s future prospects. Every year, it looks older and older. While Excel get a breath of life and a new face, Access gets a few new templates and a blog that is barely kept up to date.

Like some of you I’ve heard about Sharepoint but still doesn’t understand what is it for.
My fear is even if sharing information is a good point, who’s going to control and structuring it ?

Regarding DBs, I always found Access more accessible than other SQLServer or MYSQL,
mainly regarding the Query window which is a model of clarity. I didn’t try the EE version so
I cannot say about it. But Access should still continue existing for all the people that doesn’t
require all the functionality of xxxSQLxxx app.
just an example: I had to play with round 56K rows of informations. I thought 2 sec about moving it to MYSQL. Well, a simple copy/paste and voilà it was in Access, starting to play with it. I would have been far far from that with xxxSQLxxx app.

Regards

“currently I see sharepoint as a content management portal combined with a document management platform. These are historically 2 different types of systems, but since MS thinks that all relevant content is in MS Office documents anyway it makes sense to them to merge these into one platform. “

and this

“It would be very welcoming if MSFT could provide the market with the ‘big picture’ of how all the different tools and technologies fits together. At present I find the ‘big picture’ clear as mud…”

MS is sticking almost everything onto sharepoint that is not actually nailed down
But seriously, currently I see sharepoint as a content management portal combined with a document management platform. These are historically 2 different types of systems, but since MS thinks that all relevant content is in MS Office documents anyway it makes sense to them to merge these into one platform.