Linking to external tables using ODBC

[AntonyM]

Today is my first day using Power BI!!!! I have used MS Access a lot in the past. Time for something new. Here's what I'm trying to do. In Access, I can create links to external tables (the tables are the back end of our ERP) using an ODBC connection. When I try and retrieve data useing Power BI, I use the ODBC option and I can see the connection and can get to see all of the tables that I used to see in Access. Perfect! What I don't know is how to link rather than import the data. I can click on the tables that I want but then it looks like it's importing the data. I cancelled out and tried again and now it looks like it's refreshing but it takes ages.

Will this be the same all the time? Am I doing something wrong. It is so much faster in Access that I feel I'm doing something wrong.

Please help.

[lbendlin]

Linking in Access is nearly the same  as Direct Query mode in Power BI. Sadly - unlike in Access - you cannot use that connection to write back into the data source.