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There is a bug/weakness in Microsoft Access 2003 that I have come across recently, and it’s an insidious one. Basically, the problem manifests itself as an inability to run user-generated reports from a database. Everything else works fine–the connection to the database itself is sound, the user can run queries, view data, and do everything else imaginable except run a report.

The solution is maddeningly simple once you figure it out, but it took me quite a while to get there, so maybe I can spare some other people the time: Access runs reports via the printer driver of the default printer, and for some reason, if that printer is a networked printer, Access can’t generate the report. Queries, as a simple data-retrieval operation, do not require the driver–it’s only used in the context of the user-defined, formatted view offered by Access reports. This seems remarkably stupid, since a database application needs to run in an enterprise environment, and that implies networked laser printers.

The workaround, of course, is to install the printer locally. To do this, choose local, rather than networked at the first add printer splash screen. Then, add a local port as the name of the printer on your network, i.e. \\printers\treekiller, or through the IP, and voila, you’re connected in a way that Access 2003 understands. Seems a bit foolish, doesn’t it?