gphillipk said:
Thanks for the correction elander. This isn't related to the orig. question, but I'd like to know what would happen if the Access db was located on a computer with Windows and the query was executed from the Mac.
Three caveats that I'm aware of:
1. Setting up ODBC on the Mac is generally a pain in the you-know-what. Making it actually work is even worse.
2. If Microsoft Query is to work, ODBC has to work on the Mac, even when the server is somewhere else. Even when ODBC is set up properly and working on the Mac, Microsoft Query might not.
3. Access isn't based on ODBC, but on Jet, and as far as I am aware, there is no Jet engine for Mac OS X.
If you have Access up and running in Windows, and want to move your data to a Mac, there are two ways that I know of that would work:
1. Dump the data from Access into a file (e.g. CSV or SQL dump), clean it up and import it in your application on the Mac (e.g. Excel or MySQL respectively).
2. Set up Access to connect to MySQL on the Mac, and transfer the database that way. It's not that difficult. Have a look at this page:
http://www.bullzip.com/products/msa2mys/info.php
[INCESSANT RANT] In conclusion: I hate Access. Really. It's very convenient to use as a stand alone database on your own desktop, much like FileMaker. And just like FileMaker, it's a plague as soon as you want to share the database with others. Mind you, FileMaker used to be at least decent, with built-in web server and all, before they moved all innovating from R&D to the marketing department. MySQL, PostgreSQL or anything else that runs on multiple platforms, and can be accessed over the network should be mandatory these days.[/INCESSANT RANT]