Have you actually tried it?

A lot of the screenshots within this blog have been created using SQL Server Management Studio 2005 Express Edition due to that being the only thing installed within one of the virtual machines I regularly use while blogging.

I admit the documention page you reference is unclear, but I think that is more a documentation issue vs the feature not being present. For example the first sentance of the page explictly mentions that working with SQL Server Compact Edition databases is supported.

I do know that you need atleast Service Pack 2 of SQL Server Management Studio 2005 Express Edition, as support for Comapct Edition databases wasn’t a supported scenario in earlier service packs. Is it possible you are running a pre SP2 version of the product?

As for SSMSE 2008 it’s a listed bullet point on their product page at http://www.microsoft.com/express/sql/default.aspx.

Let me know if you have difficulty getting this working. I much perfer the features of SSMS over the database tools built into visual studio etc.

Hope this helps,
Christopher

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms365247(SQL.90).aspx – “In SSMSE, Object Explorer only supports Database Engine instances. The Connect to Server dialog box prevents connecting to other services, such as Analysis Services.”