I have an Access 2003 (version: 11.8204.8202 (SP3)) application running on a Windows XP (SP3) machine with Msjet40.dll version: 4.0.9511. The application uses tables that are ODBC linked from an Oracle database server. After performing the process to link the tables and then view the tables in Design View I notice that if the Oracle table contains DOUBLE PRECISION fields, then Access links those fields as a number but if the Oracle table contains NUMBER fields, then Access links those fields as text. Is there a reason for this? I was told through another user forum that I have the option to specify data types during the linking process but I was not able to determine where to do this. In design view I can change the data types for all of the fields, but when I go to save the changes I get a message that changes can't be made for linked tables.

Any info or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Take a look at the whitepaper (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/128385/EN-US/).

It has a section on how Oracle fields are mapped and may help you gain insight in what is going on here.

Just as an aside, SP3 introduces some problems and you need to apply a 'hotfix' from Microsoft to correct these. Have you done this?

Yes, the Access post SP3 hotfix has already been installed

Thanks