Managing and debugging SQL queries in MS Access

Question

MS Access has limited capabilities to manage raw SQL queries: the editor is quite bad, no syntax highlighting, it reformats your raw SQL into a long string and you can\'t in

Answer 1

If you're doing really complex queries in MS Access, I would consider keeping a repository of those queries somewhere outside of the Access database itself... for instance, in a .sql file that you can then edit in an editor like Intype that will provide syntax highlighting. It'll require you to update queries in both places, but you may end up finding it handy to have an "official" spot for it that is formatted and highlighted correctly.

Or, if at all possible, switch to SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, which is also free and will provide you the features you desire through the SQL Management Studio (also free).