I have SQL2008 installed on my local machine and need to view/alter/select rows and tables from a DB on a remote server running SQL 2005. Will I have any problems doing this. I have seen some people talk about setting compatibility for certain things, but this seems to only be when using new terms for SQL 2008 that don't exist in SQL 2005 is this correct?
Thanks for any help.
I assume that you're talking about using SSMS 2008 to connect to 2005 databases. You shouldn't have any problems with this at all - and in fact you'll get some benefits. SSMS 2008 has search capabilities that weren't around in the SSMS 2005 version. You won't get the intellisense when connecting to 2005 databases, but most of the other improvements in 2008 will still work.
The 2 biggest reasons for me personally to upgrade to the 2008 SSMS from 2005 are the Search feature, and also the missing-index suggestions when viewing estimated query plans.
This will work with no issues. My entire development team is setup this way currently. You will lose some features (i.e. intellisense) but other than that, it will work.