Access 2007: The Missing Manual

Chapter 21. Connecting Access to SharePoint

Even in the most dysfunctional companies, people need to get along. Businesses that have efficient ways to share information—whether it’s meeting agendas, high-priority tasks, or interoffice gossip—are more successful than those that keep quiet.

It may have occurred to you back in Chapter 18 that you can use Access to share this sort of information. All you need to do is create a suitable database, put it in a shared location, and make sure everyone has Access installed on their computers. However, you don’t need to go through any of this work if you use SharePoint, a Microsoft product that’s explicitly designed for office teamwork. Best of all, if your company owns Windows Server 2003, it already owns the basic version of SharePoint, which is all you need. (A beefed-up version of SharePoint with extra Office features is also sold under the name Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, or MOSS for short.)

Note

If you don’t own a copy of Windows Server 2003, and you’d rather plunk down the near-$1,000 sticker price for an all-inclusive beach vacation, stop reading right now. You’re better off designing your own databases for collaboration (see Chapter 18) or using the free version of SQL Server (see Chapter 20).

SharePoint works perfectly well without Access—in fact, all you need is the Internet Explorer browser. Using your browser you can log in to your team’s SharePoint site, review the latest information, upload documents, ...