Updating from Access 2013 to 365? (2 Viewers)

[GBalcom]

Hello,
We've been stable on Access 2013 for a long, long time. We are a small business but have many business critical access apps (32 bit), that I've made, heavy in VBA, and compiled .accde front ends. We use these on our front office machines with MS office, as well as shop machines that utilize 2013 runtime. We're looking into upgrading office to 365 to solve a different issue. I've heard that with 365, MS Access has updated "modern charts" available. Does Access 365 have a runtime version? I don't know a lot about 365, but it seems the access is still a PC program correct?

What potential headaches could I be faced with? Thanks for any help in advance.

 

[CJ_London]

Yes you can get a runtime for 365 access but a full version is included in most versions of office

Ensure you install the 32bit version as 64bit is now the default

If you decide to install 64 bit ensure you have a full version for development purposes - you will need to make some changes to API calls and some dimmed types- some longs become longptr. Plenty of advice on this forum and elsewhere

Other thing to watch out for - if your apps work with outlook, ensure you install the classic version. The new version is completely different and you have to do things in a completely different way

 

[GBalcom]

Yes you can get a runtime for 365 access but a full version is included in most versions of office

Ensure you install the 32bit version as 64bit is now the default

If you decide to install 64 bit ensure you have a full version for development purposes - you will need to make some changes to API calls and some dimmed types- some longs become longptr. Plenty of advice on this forum and elsewhere

Other thing to watch out for - if your apps work with outlook, ensure you install the classic version. The new version is completely different and you have to do things in a completely different way

Thank you CJ_London,
Is there any real difference (speed or otherwise) between 64 bit and 32 bit? My programs run fairly well as is, not sure it would be advantageous to switch them unless we're eventually forced to.

 

[xavier.batlle]

I don't think there are a real speed difference on most of databases. CurrentlyI install x64 on my clients but there is no real improvement on my applications.

 

[isladogs]

64-bit has improved memory handling and will be better for very demanding tasks. Otherwise 32-bit will be fine

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Thank you CJ_London,
Is there any real difference (speed or otherwise) between 64 bit and 32 bit? My programs run fairly well as is, not sure it would be advantageous to switch them unless we're eventually forced to.

There is not much of a speed difference except for cases where you have exercised the option to define external libraries ("references"). Not all 32-bit libraries have 64-bit counterparts. If you are using "plain vanilla" Office stuff, you would most likely be OK, but there is extra work involved in setting up for a mixed environment. The speed difference might be just a speed bump in upgrading the code for mixed environment, or it might be a "dead stop" if some library in question won't work at all in the mixed environment.

It is true that Access/64 has improved memory management, but you still have the same size limitations of 2 GB for an Access app file. If you don't need Excel/64 or Word/64, which CAN get very big very quickly, I would stick with Office/32.

 

[Pat Hartman]

If you install the 64-bit version of Office, you will have to at a minimum, recompile and recreate ALL of your .accde's even if they don't contain any API code. I don't find 64-bit Office to have any advantage. In the case of Excel, it just allows users to create larger spreadsheet messes.

 

[amorosik]

Hello,
We've been stable on Access 2013 for a long, long time. We are a small business but have many business critical access apps (32 bit), that I've made, heavy in VBA, and compiled .accde front ends. We use these on our front office machines with MS office, as well as shop machines that utilize 2013 runtime. We're looking into upgrading office to 365 to solve a different issue. I've heard that with 365, MS Access has updated "modern charts" available. Does Access 365 have a runtime version? I don't know a lot about 365, but it seems the access is still a PC program correct?

What potential headaches could I be faced with? Thanks for any help in advance.

Not for the graphics, which at least to me seem like a minor piece of crap
But, in the 64-bit version, for the improved memory management, which allows you to avoid all the problems related to the number of objects usable within a single project, and this in itself seems to me to be a significant reason to switch
Keep in mind that if you're already using 32-bit Access 2013, you could also install the latest 64-bit versions
They shouldn't interfere with each other, and you could use 2013/32 or 365/64 as you wish, allowing you to use both your usual development environment and the new one.

 

[isladogs]

You can create the same large spreadsheets in both 32-bit and 64-bit Excel.
The number of allowed records was increased back in Excel 2010 IIRC, and is not bitness specific.

You can SOMETIMES install both 32-bit and 64-bit Office (different versions) though officially it is not possible
For more info on mixed bitness installations, see my article

Installing Multiple Office Versions

This article explains how you can successfully install more than one version of Office on the same workstation including Access runtime and mixed bitness installations

isladogs.co.uk

 

[Pat Hartman]

But, in the 64-bit version, for the improved memory management, which allows you to avoid all the problems related to the number of objects usable within a single project, and this in itself seems to me to be a significant reason to switch

I doubt that the object limits were modified for 64-bit. I've never seen an updated list outlining how many more "forms" can be open if you are using 64-bit Access for example.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Not that many limit changes, because the key takeaway is that Access/64 doesn't break the 2 GB limit per file. That means that addresses in the code are still LONG as opposed to LONGLONG. All of the internal addresses are still 32-bit. And I think THAT means that DAO is still on 32-bit format internally as well.

 

[amorosik]

I doubt that the object limits were modified for 64-bit. I've never seen an updated list outlining how many more "forms" can be open if you are using 64-bit Access for example.

"...I've never seen..."
Now you can see it

 

[gemma-the-husky]

I actually found it quite tricky to find and download, and to install 32bit on my new machine. It was tricky removing all the parts of 64bit office that were installed by default, and which prevented the installation of 32bit.