Converting an Access Database to universal program?

[hinser13]

Hi all

I have created an access database that is distributed to different organistions. Some have windows operating systems some have Mac. Some have Office (Access) loaded, some dont. Its a bit of a nightmare creating many different versions to accomodate all users.

Is anyone aware of any programs that are able to convert access into another type of program that will run on any machine as a stand alone application.

I have looked at filemaker, is there any others that people are aware of?

Thanks Mark

 

[Banana]

Well, I'd have to say that if you really wanted an .exe program, then you would have written in a different environment, not Access. Besides, it won't help much when you have to work on different platforms since .exe usually compile to a specific platform.

I usually do not recommend automatic conversion since they tend to make half-hearted guesses and leave behind a lot of TODOs for you to manually fix up that it does not get you much ahead and possibly even worse off than if you just started from scratch.

Few things we can do, assuming we are going to stick with Access:

1) Distribute free runtime engine to users who don't have Access installed.
2) For mac users, provide a Terminal Services or virtualization software.
3) If you have SharePoint Enterprise at your organization, you could get Access 2010 and build a web database for users to access via web browsers.

There may be other options that are basically a variant of the 3 options above, but well, there you go.

BTW, another cross-platform RAD I know of is 4D but it seems to be more expensive than FileMaker. There's also Alpha Five which is Windows only but has more mature web development.

Hope that helps a bit.