I’ve done this before without any issue. However, I have several excel files that I am importing into one Access database. Headers are all the same and properly named, but my data-type option is grayed out. Thus, what I would prefer to be recognized as text is instead automatically recognized as double integer and I can’t change it.
This needs to be done because about 1400 lines down there’s a text entry rather than a number entry and I don’t want to lose data just because Access wants a number. Why is this option grayed out? I’ve imported before, larger files even, and the option was available (which I use mainly for zip code fields). Any help would be appreciated.
Also, I’ve actually created a new excel file which recognizes the field in question as text in excel…but Access still sees it as a number during the import process. No read/write protection in place and it is saved as an Excel 2000 file.
How about adding a dummy row at the start of the spreadsheet with text (alphanumeric stuff) in the column that Access is recognising as a number? I’m working on the assumption that Access is patronising you by looking at the first 100 or so rows and making up its mind based on the data type of those.
I face this problem all the time and it is damned annoying; I always end up exporting the spreadsheet as CSV from Excel, then importing that into Access (you get to define the field types when importing CSV files).
This occurs because, during the import process, Access reads the first five lines (the actual number of lines may have changed, with more recent versions, but the principle still applies) and determines the data type for each column, based on the values in those rows. micilin’s idea of adding a dummy row should work, because any inconsistent column should be marked as text.