Access on a Mac

[John Sh]

This is not a programming question, so my apologies in advance!
Is it possible to run, or convert, Access with vba code to run on a Mac.
I know you can run Windows on a Mac but that's a bit extreme to run just one small program.
I have tried a couple of software "alternatives" but they do not seem to recognise the code behind the tables.
Any suggestions gratefully accepted.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Researching this, there seems to be some doubt.

This article talks about other Office utilities that run on a MAC but it doesn't mention Access.

Macworld

Macworld is your ultimate guide to Apple's product universe, explaining what's new, what's best and how to make the most out of the products you love.

www.macworld.co.uk

Ditto:

Microsoft readies Office for Big Sur, M1-based Macs

One day after Apple unveiled new computers that run on Apple-designed silicon, Microsoft issued a preview of Office for the Mac that will run natively on the new hardware.

www.computerworld.com

When I directly searched for "MS Access on MAC" I got a bunch of negative comments or lists of alternatives. I'm going to have to say a qualified "NO" on that question, at least for the moment.

 

[John Sh]

Researching this, there seems to be some doubt.

This article talks about other Office utilities that run on a MAC but it doesn't mention Access.

Macworld

Macworld is your ultimate guide to Apple's product universe, explaining what's new, what's best and how to make the most out of the products you love.

www.macworld.co.uk

Ditto:

Microsoft readies Office for Big Sur, M1-based Macs

One day after Apple unveiled new computers that run on Apple-designed silicon, Microsoft issued a preview of Office for the Mac that will run natively on the new hardware.

www.computerworld.com

When I directly searched for "MS Access on MAC" I got a bunch of negative comments or lists of alternatives. I'm going to have to say a qualified "NO" on that question, at least for the moment.

I read one article that said change the file separators from \ to : but then Mac file separators seem more like /. I think Windows on the Mac and a copy of Office might be the go.
As always thank you for the response.

 

[isladogs]

Access has always been Windows only (FWIW that also applies to Publisher).
Confusingly perhaps, MS documentation always says PC only for each of these.
Nothing has changed with the new announcements.

So you will need to have a dual boot Windows partition to run Access on a Mac.

Just for interest, what were the unsuccessful software alternatives that you tried?

 

[John Sh]

I tried a few of the freebies I.e libre office, free office and wps office.Libre office opened the table after a quick conversion.
WPS has no facility to run Access files, nor does the "free" online version of MS office 365.
FreeOffice is 2018 dated and extremely slow to install, the best part of 5 minutes, after which it had even less options than WPS.
It would appear that parallel operating systems and a full blown copy of Office is the only viable option.
Thanks for your interest.

 

[Jon]

Maybe this would help?

WineHQ - Run Windows applications on Linux, BSD, Solaris and macOS

Open Source Software for running Windows applications on other operating systems.

www.winehq.org

You would have to check compatibility.

 

[John Sh]

Access has always been Windows only (FWIW that also applies to Publisher).
Confusingly perhaps, MS documentation always says PC only for each of these.
Nothing has changed with the new announcements.

So you will need to have a dual boot Windows partition to run Access on a Mac.

Just for interest, what were the unsuccessful software alternatives that you tried?

Further to my testing of various apps I am now unable to open the VBA editor. I suspect Libre Offfice has changed something in the registry that the uninstall missed. Looks like I will have to reinstall MS Office.

 

[John Sh]

There is no other product on the market that can hold a candle to Access. If you insist on using Apple products, then you need the dual boot option to run Windows UNLESS you want to invest in Citrix or Remote Desktop and run your Access apps on a server via a web browser. That way it doesn't matter what OS the PC is running. You just need a browser.

I, personally. believe "apples were meant for eating". I don't go near their products. Unfortunately there is a cohort out there that can't, or won't, be convinced otherwise. It is one of that cohort I am trying to appease.
On my previous post I suggested Libre Office was the culprit, I was wrong. It was WPS that moved the .OLB file.