Nov 06 2022 01:10 PM
Hello all,
We are four (soon 5) employees who are working on premises.
Current Situation
We have:
- One Dell Server (#1), used only to host documents (Word, Excel, PDF, JPG, etc.)
- One Dell Server (#2), used to host Quickbooks files + acting as a backup server for server #1
- Four Dell desktop computers (Windows 10 Pro), connected to both servers via local network,
- Two Dell 24" monitors per computer
- One laser printer per computer (wired)
- One ScanSnap scanner per computer (wired)
On a daily basis, we use the following software apps:
- Microsoft 365 (Word, Excel, and Access)
- Quickbooks Pro 2021 (desktop edition)
- Chrome, Firefox and Edge
- Gmail Workspace (for all our daily emails)
- MS Outlook + add-on EmaiMerge Pro for Outlook (only for mass emailing once a month)
More precisely, we extensively use Word mail merge in connection with our Access database (almost 5,000 records - our clientele information). We prepare our draft emails and a lot of corporate documents, by using Word mail merge.
In brief, the Word mail merge + Access combination is crucial for our business.
Expected Situation
I want to move our whole business in the cloud by using any appropriate Microsoft solution.
Problem
I am unable to find a solution allowing us to continue to use Word mailmerge + Access if we put our business in the cloud.
Microsoft 365, including Sharepoint, is nice but Word does not allow us to use a data source that is online.
Windows 365 is an interesting solution, maybe?
I recently have a virtual meeting with a member of the Microsoft cloud team, but he had no solution (weird...).
Do you have any idea how I can achieve my goal to move our business in the cloud and continue to use Word mailmerge with Access?
Any help or guidance would be much appreciated.
Dec 13 2022 02:27 PM
Dec 13 2022 03:02 PM - edited Dec 13 2022 03:05 PM
Access does NOT run "in the cloud". It runs under Windows, on a Windows computer.
It is not safe to try to use Access from a SharePoint location. In order to support multiple users changing or adding records in the tables in a shared accdb, the operating system must support a protocol to do that. SharePoint doesn't support that protocol. That means if you put Access in a SharePoint library it is effectively single-user only.
Windows 365? Perhaps you meant Microsoft 365? It does support online versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint--not Access. And as Doug pointed out, the online version of Word would not continue to support mail merge anyway.
Where does that leave you?
You can continue to use Access and Word from your desktops. You can move the DATA in the accdb Back End for your relational database application "to the cloud". That can be SharePoint lists linked to the desktop Access FE. That can be Dataverse tables, or that can be a remotely hosted SQL Server instance, or Azure SQL.
Dec 20 2022 12:58 AM