Access 97 Import Text Problem

[MIG]

We have new PCs with XP, but have installed Access 97 for reasons of
backwards compatibility.

When Access 97 was installed on NT, the Import Text Wizard used to
allow the user to highlight each field and change the data type that it
was to be imported as.

Now, when you highlight each field, you only see the data type for the
first field and cannot change the data type for any other fields. What
could be causing this bug, and is there a way round it?

The reason why it's a problem: if in the first few records a field
contains n/n/n, it will be imported as a date type. If, further down
the file, there is anything with an invalid date, the wizard will
simply refuse to import the records, leaving you with no idea which
records have been missed out. I need to tell it to import the field as
text and correct any invalid dates later.

[teddysnips]

MIG wrote:

We have new PCs with XP, but have installed Access 97 for reasons of
backwards compatibility.

[...]

My hunch is that XP/NT is a red herring, and that you have done a
custom installation of Access and missed off the vital component (Data
Import options, or Wizard or whatever) that allows you to select the
field type.

As I say, just a hunch.

Edward
--
The reading group's reading group:
http://www.bookgroup.org.uk

[MIG]

>My hunch is that XP/NT is a red herring, and that you have done a

custom installation of Access and missed off the vital component (Data
Import options, or Wizard or whatever) that allows you to select the
field type.

I thought that as well, although similar experiences from others might
have pointed to some kind of incompatibility. I thought I did custom
and selected everything, but I'll look again. That is Access and Data
Access Components. I suppose it could be something in Office 97, not
part of Access, that was left out.

Thanks.

[David Schofield]

On 31 May 2005 08:34:07 -0700, "MIG" <go********@doreenbird.co.uk>
wrote:

My hunch is that XP/NT is a red herring, and that you have done a
custom installation of Access and missed off the vital component (Data
Import options, or Wizard or whatever) that allows you to select the
field type.

I thought that as well, although similar experiences from others might
have pointed to some kind of incompatibility. I thought I did custom
and selected everything, but I'll look again. That is Access and Data
Access Components. I suppose it could be something in Office 97, not
part of Access, that was left out.

Thanks.

Hi
sometimes it is easier to import by appending to an empty table which
can be set up in advance with all the right field types. You can peel
off a new empty table as required by copying a template.
David

[MIG]

David Schofield wrote:

On 31 May 2005 08:34:07 -0700, "MIG" <go********@doreenbird.co.uk>
wrote:

My hunch is that XP/NT is a red herring, and that you have done a
custom installation of Access and missed off the vital component (Data
Import options, or Wizard or whatever) that allows you to select the
field type.

I thought that as well, although similar experiences from others might
have pointed to some kind of incompatibility. I thought I did custom
and selected everything, but I'll look again. That is Access and Data
Access Components. I suppose it could be something in Office 97, not
part of Access, that was left out.

Thanks.

Hi
sometimes it is easier to import by appending to an empty table which
can be set up in advance with all the right field types. You can peel
off a new empty table as required by copying a template.
David

Believe it or not, I found the very wierd solution.

As you go through the wizard, you get to a screen where, in the
previous installation, you clicked on each column heading and the
assumed data type appeared in a field above it which you could amend.

This no longer works. The fields won't change. But if you click on
the Advanced button, there is a choice of data types among those
options anyway, and you can change the type there (duh; I never
noticed).

The only disadvantage is that, if they are called "field 5" etc, you
can't see the example data any more and have to remember which field
was which.

I just can't understand why the same version of Access behaves in such
a different way on a different operating system.