Andy,

I was also surprised that you didn't mention Access Projects. For those that are EM aficionados, the Access query by example interface is much closer to that in EM, as opposed to that offered when one uses ODBC to connect.

For example, in an Access Project, the SQL Server functions and syntax are all available in the Access QBE tool. Therefore, you use '%' instead of Access' '*' as a wildcard character; and GETDATE() and CAST() are used instead of their Access equivalents.

In addition, it's lots quicker to set up an Access Project for existing SQL Server data than it is to set up an ODBC connection.