MS-Access / Getting Started

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Linking Text and Spreadsheet Files

Linking a text file or an Excel spreadsheet file is almost identical to importing these types of files, as discussed earlier in this tutorial. As noted, you can only read linked text and Excel spreadsheet files.

To link a spreadsheet file or a text file, do the following:

1. Open the Access database to which you want to link the file. If that database is already open, close any objects so that only the Navigation pane is visible.
2. On the External Data tab, in the Import & Link group, click the Excel or Text File command. Select Link To The Data Source By Creating A Linked Table in the Get External Data dialog box.
3. Click Browse to open the File Open dialog box shown earlier. Select the folder and the name of the file to which you want to link. If you're connecting over a network, select the logical drive that is assigned to the network server that contains the database you want. If you want Access to automatically connect to the network server each time you open the linked file, type the full network location in the File Name box instead of choosing a logical drive, path, and file name. For example, on a Windows network you might enter a network location such as
   \\filesvr\excel\shared\companies.xlsx
4. Click Open to return to the Get External Data dialog box, and then click OK to start the Link Spreadsheet Wizard or the Link Text Wizard.
5. Follow the steps in the wizard, which are identical to the steps for importing a spreadsheet or text file, as described earlier in this tutorial.

CAUTION!: You can have the same problems with delimiters, text qualifiers, data types, and primary keys noted under importing. You might need to correct or reformat the data in your text or spreadsheet file to be able to successfully link to it. For example, if Access guesses the wrong data type for a column in an Excel file, you will see #Error in fields that have the incorrect data type.