By Jim Gordon, co-author of Office 2011 for
Mac All-in-One For
Dummies
Several components of
Microsoft Office provide connections to database tables.
These connections can be used for a variety of purposes such as mail
merge, tables, database reports, graphs, and pivot tables in Microsoft
Office Macintosh applications including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Glossary
Connectivity in
Microsoft Office for Macintosh uses these technologies: AppleScript
- programming language to
automate processes and develop new applications DDE
– Dynamic Data Exchange connects
applications to data sources Linking
- By using special paste techniques you can create data links between
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Microsoft
Query
– A graphical user
interface for making SQL queries on database tables. ODBC
– Open Database Connectivity
connects applications to data sources ODBC
Driver – acts as intermediary to
connect Office applications to database tables made by Office and other
applications. These
drivers must be purchased from 3rd
party
providers. OLE – Object Linking and Embedding SQL
– Structured Query Language
provides a means to select records and manipulate tables VBA
– Visual Basic for Applications
programming language to automate processes and develop new applications Web
Query – Connects an Excel workbook to
a web page's HTML tables WordBasic
- older programming language to
automate processes in Microsoft Word Word
Field – special way to use and
format data in Microsoft Word XML
- a text-based programming language XLM - Excel
4
macro language
Features specific to Office 2011 for Mac
VBA supported is version 6.5,
which is the same version as the 32-bit version of VBA in Office 2010
for Windows
The object model of Office 2011
is not identical to other versions of Office. Test your VBA code in
Office 2011 before deploying VBA projects.
DDE and ODBC do not work in
PowerPoint
Microsoft Query is included
with the
standard install of Office 2011
Microsoft Graph is included
with the
standard install of Office 2011. It is accessible by using the Insert
> Object feature in
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Microsoft Graph is provided for backwards
compatibility. Don't rely on it being there in future versions of
Office.