The most common way to interact with your COBOL tables (now an ODBC data source) is by using Microsoft Query, a database query tool that comes with Microsoft Office. You can invoke Query directly from Windows applications like Microsoft Word and Excel. Once in Query, you can use the point-and-click interface to build up queries graphically, or you can bring up a text box to manually enter SQL for execution by Micro Focus XDBC. ODBC calls to the COBOL tables are totally transparent when you use Query. Other Windows programs, like Microsoft Access, Crystal Reports Professional, and the Microsoft Visual Basic development system, have their own interfaces to ODBC data sources.
This help section describes how you can access indexed file data from three of the most popular Windows applications: Microsoft Word, Excel, and Access. For instructions on accessing an ODBC data source from other Windows applications, see the application-specific user documentation. Examples assume you have performed all the setup tasks applicable to your environment, such as creating the sample database and a data source name (DSN).