Access 97 To Access 2003

[carlnewboult]

Hi,

Stupid question but I am setting up a database for a company and now that I have almost completed it they have told me that they are upgrading all of their office programs to office 2003 and I was just wondering if this will affect my database.

Thanks

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I was just wondering if this will affect my database.

Yes.

Oh... you wanted details?

The biggie is ADO vs DAO (open up Ac2003 Help and search for those topics so you can find out what this does to you). Libraries will be different because, among other things, version differences crop up. I would advise that you use Access itself to help with the conversion, but with a specific strategy that will minimize problems later.

If you have a working Ac97 DB, open a BLANK Ac03 DB. Then try to import each object from Ac97 to Ac03. You can import objects (including relationships, I think) one at a time or all objects in a given category. Do tables first, then queries and references, forms, reports, macros, and modules.

DON'T try to actually convert the raw .MDB file. You invite about a bazillion "missing reference" problems. Doing an import rather than a conversion-in-place eliminates a (sadly small) percentage of these issues. Expect a few reference issues anyway.

Use the forum's Search facility to find articles on "upgrading" or "converting" databases. This topic has been addressed many times. You can also search for "missing references" because that is another condition that will jump up to haunt you.

 

[carlnewboult]

Thanks for that Doc. I was anticipating that sort of answer maybe I will have to charge them more as it is going to take longer and it is them that have changed the specifications not myself.

 

[ghudson]

The only problem I had when I converted my secured db's from Access 97 to Access 2003 was some of my code would not convert. Access told me where the problem was, I fixed it so that it would work in 97 and 2003 then I converted.

"One" of new challenges that Access 2003 gives you will be how to handle the new macro security, digital signatures and sandbox stuff.

As Doc mentioned above... Search around the forum for there are lots of threads related to your current questions and your future questions.