Crazy slow report/multiple databases--any ideas

[DRM]

I need to produce a report that draws on several databases. This is an
inherited situation, and it's not practical to combine the databases at this
point.

I have created a new database (Access 2003) that uses remote queries to
assemble a recordset from the various source databases, a union query that
combines those remote queries, and a report based on this union query.

The union query of the various remote queries is a little sluggish, as one
might expect, but perfectly acceptable under the circumstances. But as soon
as I try to create the report (or a form, for that matter) based on the
query, the database all but freezes up. In design view for the report, for
example, a single editing click can take 2 or 3 minutes [sic] to be
recognized. The report itself is unbelievably slow when it is possible to
open it at all, and essentially unusable.

Does anyone know what feature of a report (or form) would bring things to a
halt, given that the underlying query, though a little slow, responds OK? I
will add that I have also tried this by linking to the tables in the other
database and making the queries locally, with the same painfully slow result.

In case it's relevant, the source databases are each in the same folder on a
server, as is the new database for generating the report. That folder is
mapped as a drive letter on my local machine.

Any suggestions would be welcome--some feature of the report to disable,
maybe, to speed things up?

 

[Jackie L]

Try taking the query you are currently using to run the report and making it
a Make Table Query to create a temporary table. Then base your report off
that table instead. That was always helpful in the past with slow response.

Hope this helps.

 

[DRM]

Very good suggestion that did the trick. Thanks.