[Judy]

I'm in a debate with a colleague over where/how Word saves the addresses when
we create them in the New Address List dialog box in Word. Are they saved as
an Access database, or simply in a Word table?

Thanks

[Peter Jamieson]

Assuming you mean the dialog in Word 2007, Word saves them in a .mdb
file. In fact every Windows version of Word after Word 2000 uses a .mdb
by default.

If you want to continue to use "Word" data sources, all you need to do
is create a Word document with nothing except a Word table with one row
for the column names and one row per data record, unless you need more
than the maximum number of columns in a table.

(As background, .mdb was the original "native" database format used by
Access, which uses a "database engine" called Jet to store/retrieve and
manage data in .mdbs and some other formats. Access 2007 uses a new
version of Jet, renamed ACE, to manage a new version of the .mdb format
called .accdb.

..mdbs can be created and manipulated using Jet - you don't need Access
to use them. But Word creates a .mdb with a specific table structure
which is sometimes referred to in Office as an "Office Address List"
(OAL). Word only lets you edit data in .mdbs that are OALs, not other
types of .mdb.(Word 2007 may have some exceptions to that rule - not
sure). Although you can open OALs in Access, it is not advisable to do
itin order to produce Access reports etc. because Access tends to add
tables and other objects that mean that Word will no longer recognise
the .mdb as an OAL. So if you want to use an OAL with Access, either
make a copy and work with the copy, or create a new database in Access
and link to the table/query in the OAL.


Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

On 03/02/2010 01:27, Judy wrote:
I'm in a debate with a colleague over where/how Word saves the addresses when
we create them in the New Address List dialog box in Word. Are they saved as
an Access database, or simply in a Word table?

Thanks