Access 2013 - Dbase (.dbf) Table Import option

The ultimate in arrogance and ignorance is to ignore your customer base and/or presume you know best what they want (but get it wrong at every turn).

Just as arrogant and ignorant is to assume that your needs reflect a large proportion of the customer base. Or to make judgements based on very little evidence.

I also don't know on what basis you believe that MS gets "it wrong at every turn".  

What happens here represents a very small percentage of the customer base. MS has sales figures and other telemetry data (which I know that they pay attention to) to tell them what their customer base needs and wants.

I'm not saying that I agree with the removal of dBase support or other moves MS has made. There are things I would like to have been done differently. But, as an MVP, I have some knowledge of things inside MS and the Access team that make me aware that the customer base is not being ignored. This forum is for help with using Microsoft products, not a forum for MS to communicate their internal policies and workings with the public. There are other venues for that.

I'm not defending MS here. I'm commenting on your attack of MS which, I believe, is based more on your ire over the removal of one or more features than actual facts.

But they aren't are they. they don't care and it is obvious.

We converse on the issue here.... they do not comment and we have had entire new releases since issue identified and still the issue persists DBF is dead so they think and we have to use additional 3rd party tools or scripting to overcome failings.

And we seem to be "working" around MS more and more these days as they focus on the data and habits of users for sales and for selling... but DO NOT do the less sinister and appropriate product enhancement focus of talking to their users in forums such as this.

They obviously ignore "UserVoice" (as the previous guy mentioned and was shot down for.... do you honestly think he wasn't making an 100% valid point).

MS needs to get their heads out of their proverbial.

The ultimate in arrogance and ignorance is to ignore your customer base and/or presume you know best what they want (but get it wrong at every turn).

MS will either wake up and smell the coffee (only once the monopoly fails I should think, and people start to max exodus, rather than the dribs and drabs which make the transition away slowly) or antagonises its client base at its own peril.

We listen, we try to follow "process" to get MS to listen (just as you say).

But they do not engage they do not care.

The ultimate arrogance and ignorance that will cost them customers.

Yes, that would work in versions of Access prior to 2013.

The point here is that support for dbf linking was dropped in the 2013 version.

I'm sure that the Access team is highly aware of the problem and taking it seriously. I don't know what to expect in the future, though.

So, please, keep voting at the UserVoice form to let them know it is important to your business.

Thanks.

George Hepworth

Access MVP 2007-2016