Access does work different.
Excel, or Word tend to be ONE document and work on r SharePoint.
is now editing "ePoint lists. If you do this, then you can place a copy of the Accessthe WHOLE document at once. (so they make a “copy” to work on – Access does NOT make a copy).
So when you open Word docs a WHOLE copy of the file is pulled down to your local computer. You edit the document and then save the WHOLE file back up.
The problem with Access is it not really designed around a “whole” file approach. In Access you often have many rows of data. If one user would to grab the WHOLE file. Then do some editing (but not yet save).
Now you then open the file (two people are editing). Then if you save your data (the whole file), then the other user saves (again the whole file), then the last person’s file will overwrite your
changes.
And unlike word or Excel, Access saves data AS YOU WORK, not when you AT THE "END" exit and save. notice how when you exit Access there is no save prompt like word etc.
The issue is that using a “file based” approach tends to work for Word or say PowerPoint since you edit a document, and then save it.
OneDrive treats Access the same way – a simple file that you load + edit and then save.
The above quite much means that two people cannot edit data at the same time since the last person who grabs a copy of the file will upon saving will overwrite their copy on top of any changes made by others.
So it not really that Access is different but in fact we WANT SkyDrive to work differently. We don’t’ want a “whole” file approach anymore. Access is able to modify "parts" of the file and has no save when exiting Access.
So we want something different then what is occurring with Word, Power-Point etc. And that “same” behavior we do not want is that saving of WHOLE document over the last copy and user.
SkyDrive is “document” based. You can only save a WHOLE file.
However Access is interesting because when using Access on a windows drive (as opposed to a web based one like SkyDrive), then Access is able to write “bits” and “parts” of the file.
Unlike Word or PowerPoint Access is the ONLY program in office that allows one to write BITS and PARTS of the file (in fact we call this a database record).
The above explains why you can place an Access database on a windows file share and have MORE than one user open that file at the same time. As long as the “bit and parts” of the file they are editing is on a DIFFERENT PART of the file, then multiple users are allowed to edit data at the SAME time.
I explain this concept in detail in this article:
http://www.kallal.ca//Wan/Wans.html
So Access does not make it “too” easy to save the file to SkyDrive (OneDrive) because you have a high chance of overwriting changes made by other people if they also are attempting to save a whole file to SkyDrive.
So windows networking allows “bits and parts” of files.
SkyDrive = whole file approach only.
You can certainly have users pull down a copy. Edit, and then copy the file back up. It likely best to have users work this way. And they should likely zip up the file before doing this as it will make the file much smaller.
Multi-users at same time?
You can do this. This means you have to migrate” or move the tables out of Access into what are called SharePoint lists. If you do this, then you can place a copy of the Access application on each desktop and link the Access application to the office 365 system. The result is each user is now editing “bits and parts” that reside on office 365 or SharePoint. No sync is required, and the whole system becomes multi-user.
Another way is to use the Access 2013 web publising and then "link" to the data tables on 365 (they will reisde in SQL Azure).
So in the case of Access, just have your users copy the file to local, un-zip. Then let them edit, and then zip up the file and place it back on OneDrive/SkyDrive.
You cannot use Access any other way with these shared 'web based' drive services because they are “web” based and they don’t allow the “bits and parts” changes to files but only WHOLE files and one at a time files.
