Access 2002 Programming by Example

Sharing and Integrating with Other Applications

Not only is there a need to convert from earlier Access versions, but increasingly there also is a need to convert data to and from other Office formats, such as Excel. In addition, there is a need to share data with non-Office applications and larger databases, such as Oracle. But Office programs share many of the same features and resources, making the conversion process almost seamless. This functionality makes it particularly tempting to transfer data back and forth.

For example, suppose you know that Access supports mailing labels through its Label Wizard, which can be accessed when you click New under Reports. Then again, you like the functionality of the mail merge feature of Microsoft Word. ...