I am trying to build a client a database setup that he can work with on his own machine. He owns ms office so I wanted to build it around Access. Only problem is one field in his table will usually end up longer than 255 characters for his product descriptions. Is there any other way to allow you to use more than 255 characters for a field? I know with SQL you aren't as limited but it has to be something he can use since he is not all that versed in anything outside basic MS office type programs. Just fishing for ideas on how to handle this. Eventually we'll be using his DB for a website so it really does need to be more than 255 chars. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks in advance.

I would use MS SQL. It will be worth the exta effort you put into it. Otherwise, that's all that can be done, afaik with access. Have you thought of shortening the descriptions?

MySQL's max varchar/char was 255 until version 5.1. The alternative is to use the "text" type but has performance implications. If you do go with MySQL, go with v5.1