Access 2013 - Dbase (.dbf) Table Import option

That's possibly a more productive way to proceed than posting complaints in a Q& A forum would be.

Keeping in mind that the same government agencies who are still distributing their data exclusively in .dbf format are not likely to be on the cutting edge as far as Office versions is concerned either, it may well be that a good number of them haven't noticed yet. That's speculation on my part, though.

In any event, directing problems to the appropriate MS sources should be more productive than posting complaints here. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the latter, just that getting your message in front of the right people is going to be more effective.

And one more time, there is a viable alternative readily at hand, called Excel. You'll also need to explain why that doesn't meet the needs of many, if not most, organizations who need to import .dbf files.

And finally, I hope it doesn't sound like I'm defending MS here; I'm just trying to point out the realities of the current situation.

 

They need to FIX IT!

 

I wish you the best of luck in getting it done.  I hope they do.  I am not going to hold my breath on it though.

Still....

It is not so much a matter of 'how many', but rather 'who' is complaining.

That 'very small percentage' of Microsoft customers are; developers and consultants supporting various governmental and regulatory data publications / solutions; small business solution developers; long time 'power users'; etc ... etc... etc...

Perhaps various government regulatory agencies should be made aware of Microsoft's refusal to support the format in which their data is made available to the public .... hhhhhmmmm .....

Microsoft made a mistake ( not their first - won't be their last ).

They need to FIX IT!

As both Bob and I noted, this is a case where MS decided to invest development resources elsewhere.

I don't think it is accurate to say that they didn't consult their customers; it is probably more accurate to say that they decided not to invest resources in maintaining a feature used by a very small percentage of their customers. That's a significant difference. To those who have been working with .dbf files, of course, it is quite a bit of a hit. But truly, the percentage of .dbf users is not that great and the influence you can hope to wield is also not that great.

I do agree that the ability of Excel 2013 to directly OPEN .dbf files indicates that it would not have been a big deal to maintain the capability in Access.  Therefore, it's hard to understand why it went this way. Still, I assure you that Microsoft is not going to alter it's strategies on the basis of a relative handful of complaints.