MS Access

[Red Claw]

Why doesn't MS support MS Access for Macintosh? Since I work in an
educational environment that's mostly PC with MS Office begin the main
suite, it would only be logical that since the PC version of MS Office
contains MS Access for database entry, the Mac version of MS Office would
also have MS Access.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Why doesn't MS support MS Access for Macintosh? Since I work in an
educational environment that's mostly PC with MS Office begin the main
suite, it would only be logical that since the PC version of MS Office
contains MS Access for database entry, the Mac version of MS Office would
also have MS Access.

Too much investment for too little market...

Given the current Mac market share, the existing cross-platform
alternatives (Filemaker Pro and 4D), and that Access consists of
millions of lines of spaghetti code that would cost far more to port to
the Mac than could possibly be recouped in sales, it's a sound business
decision to not offer it.

Should one of those factors change significantly, I'm sure that MacBU
would look again at porting..

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Since you work in an educational environment, I believe you can get 4D for
both Win and Mac for free, and use that instead.
http://www.4d.com/products/academic

PS. There are about seven different configurations of "MS Office" for
Windows, each containing different programs.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Red,

If you're question is interpreted to mean, "Why doesn't Microsoft *make*
MS Access for the Mac?" then the answer is what JE McGimpsey said. The
market is too small and the product would likely be a money loser for
Microsoft. There's no sense for Microsoft to intentially lose money on a
product.

On the other hand, MS Access does have some support on the Macintosh,
although it is quite limited.

There are two ways to get at tables in Access. One way is to use ODBC
and MS Query with Excel. Using this method SQL queries can be executed
directly with Access data tables. The queries used in Access can also be
used with Excel and MS Query.
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/produc...IBRARY/how_to_articles/office2004/xl_ODBC.xml>

Another way is to synch Access data tables with Excel via a workbook
that is shared in a directory that is accessible by both Macs and PCs.
This works because MS Access can save reports and tables in Excel
format, and Excel workbooks can be shared by both Macs and PCs
simultaneously.

Things that can't be brought across are reports. You will need to
re-create reports in Excel or use a combination of Excel and Word's data
merge manager. Using Word's data merge manager is actually a much more
powerful report generating tool than the rather wimpy one within MS Access.

-Jim

 

[Axel Hammerschmidt]

Why doesn't MS support MS Access for Macintosh? Since I work in an
educational environment that's mostly PC with MS Office begin the main
suite, it would only be logical that since the PC version of MS Office
contains MS Access for database entry, the Mac version of MS Office would
also have MS Access.

Why bother with Access?

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[CyberTaz]

Hi Jim, Red Claw, et al-

At the risk of getting in the middle here & with all respect for the
comments from everyone on the thread, there are valid points on each
"side". I don't believe MS is intentionally trying to dupe Mac users,
but there doesn't seem to be a real effort to dispel the common
misconception that "Office is Office". By the same token, I fully agree
that responsibility lies with the user to look beyond the large print
to determine exactly what he is getting for his money. It also stands
to reason that Access is not what you would call a "personal
productivity package", so if it were included I'm sure many people were
being forced to buy something (expensive) they'd never use.

Where my dissatisfaction comes from is the disparity within the
individual programs. As you accurately point out, ODBC is an option.
But please note that "option" is the key word. The link you were kind
enough to provide essentially links to other sites where a Mac user can
BUY ODBC drivers. They're included in the PC version of Excel, but not
for Mac even if you invest in Professional. I fully comprehend all the
points made about the cost/profit ratio of porting Access, but ODBC
drivers? C'mon! (BTW - even with them, XLMac still doesn't provide Web
Queries, does it? - another standard feature in XLPC.

Another aspect lacking in the quite valid techniques you suggest is
Access Forms. From the standpoint of controlling data entry, accurately
presenting data selectively from multiple related tables, automation
through macros/vba triggered by Form event properties, etc., users are
still relegated to raw data access and have no design capabilities for
Forms or any other Access objects.

As for:

"All that having been stated, in response to
And for some Mac users, they've never touched a Window
machine therefore they "don't know how to use one.""

The Mac users would have to learn the program, itself, no matter which
app or which platform it runs on. The only thing they need to know
about the Windows machine is how to double-click a shortcut icon on the
desktop. That doesn't sound like much of a challenge to a Mac user. I
don't mean to sound like a computer snob, but I've been training apps &
OS on both platforms for over 10 years. IMHO, any user on either
platform who can't readily migrate to the other with a virtually flat
learning curve probably isn't as capable on their native platform as
they think they are.

One last morsel as food for thought: 25% of a staff of 170, rounded
down to 40 X 5 days @ MacWorld (meals, lodging, transportation, tips,
hospitality suites, etc.). Wanna guess how close to $250K that is? Half
of that could provide a lot of ODBC drivers.

Thanks for your indulgence! I hope I haven't irked anyone unless I've
irked everyone. I try to be an equal opportunity irritant!

Best to all!

 

[JE McGimpsey]

One last morsel as food for thought: 25% of a staff of 170, rounded
down to 40 X 5 days @ MacWorld (meals, lodging, transportation, tips,
hospitality suites, etc.). Wanna guess how close to $250K that is? Half
of that could provide a lot of ODBC drivers.

Careful with your assumptions. Half of MacBU is 45 minutes or so from
SF. Most people were not there for 5 days. A lot of other business got
done by many that would have required travel anyway.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi CyberTaz,

I suppose that Windows users could gripe that their version of Office is
not up to snuff in many ways with the Mac Office 2004. No office-wise
photo special effects, no scrapbook, no version checker, no save as PDF,
etc. Unfortunately, I doubt most of them will investigate Mac Office.
Their loss, I guess.

I think you'll find that most of the ODBC support is part of Microsoft
Windows rather than Microsoft Office. For this reason I look to Apple,
not Microsoft, to supply these drivers for Macintosh. Other database
programs such as FileMaker Pro, MySQL, and Oracle would be better served
if Apple were to provide these drivers.

If Apple were to get serious about database stuff then corporate IS
folks would have even less quicksand to stand on when they push
Microsoft Windows onto their clients. The new iMac mini is a powerful
little box and it's priced competitively to many Windows box
configurations. If ODBC were in place and enough mac units were rolling
out the door to corporate users then MacBU would likely re-evaluate
their "No Access" position. Microsoft's pretty smart. If they see Mac
boxes replacing Windows boxes then you can bet they will want to have
their product in place ready to roll. But first, there has to be solid
evidence of sales (chicken or egg, yea i know).

-Jim

 

[James]

Does microsoft support event trapping for OfficeX on Mac?

Best,

James

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi,

You can use events in Microsoft Visual Basic and also in AppleScript in
Office for the Mac.

-Jim

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

You can use events in Microsoft Visual Basic and also in AppleScript in
Office for the Mac.

Actually only VBA. There's no equivalent of the AutoMacros event trapping in
AppleScript.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Thanks, Paul. I was thinking of "DoVisualBasic." Would that work?

-Jim

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

No. 'do Visual Basic' can certainly be run from any external AppleScript at
any time, but there's no way to attach a script to a document such that it
runs automatically when you open the document. I suppose you could set up a
stay-open applet (in ~/Startup Items) that was always open and running an
idle handler every few seconds to check whether Word was running and if
specific named documents existed (i.e. were open), and if so, to do
something. But this is much, much clunkier than a macro "embedded" in the
document itself triggered from an AutoExec macro on open.

I don't think that even a Folder Action in the Finder would work here (I
haven't use them much). Attached to the folder containing the document, it
would only notice if you added a new doc, or removed one, or maybe re-saved
one, not if you opened a doc.

The problem is not with sending Word commands, it's with knowing when to
send them. There's no way to attach an AppleScript to a document that is
triggered by an Open event, as you can with AutoExec VBA macros. It's the
one limitation of AppleScript - but a carefully considered one, I think.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[James]

Does this mean that the "autosever" of any running office application, such
as word, excel, powerpoint, etc, has not been implemented in a way that
allows external applications to register for events. If so, there won't be
any means of attaching this handler from external sources.

mac users are treated so "badly" by microsoft folks. Any plan to add this in
the future mac office suite? How about office 2004?

Best,

James