Question Upgrading Access 97 to 2003

[Rainbowhawk]

Hi All

After many, many years we may finally be allowed to upgrade to Access 2003 (we have had to fight to get this far)

We have a number of obstacles still to overcome and I would appreciate some advice.

We have approx 60 databases with various links and around 150 machines supporting 200 odd users.

One option being discussed is to deploy a solution using the Access 2003 runtime but I understand that in order to do this we would need Visual Studio Tools for Office 2003 which seems to be no longer available.

Is it possible to use the Access 2003 runtime without going down this road?

Another option we are looking at but not hopeful of is to get Access 2007, am I right in thinking that we can just install the runtime on as many machines as we want and then any database developed in Access 2007 and saved as in ACCDE format?

Thoughts?

Hawk

 

[Simon_MT]

Go straight pass Access 2003 to Access 2007. There is now lots of forum support and experience and whilst it is a different beast there is little point in upgrading to Access 2003.

I personally went straight from Access 97 to Access 2007 because it handled, at long last, native formats of images. There were a few conversion problems but nothing that was an absolute show-stopper. Fortunately I didn't use drop-down Menus.

Simon

 

[Galaxiom]

The 2007 Runtime happliy runs 2003 databases and does not require any purchase.

Go straight pass Access 2003 to Access 2007. There is now lots of forum support and experience and whilst it is a different beast there is little point in upgrading to Access 2003.

I disagree very strongly. The changes from 98 to 2003 format are subtle but far more important than the 2003 to 2007 changes. I would say there is little point upgrading the databases to 2007 and good reasons not to do so. 2007 accdb was a work in progress only completed with the 2010 format. 2007 cannot support some of the features in 2010 but the difference in the files is not obvious.

If upgrading beyond mdb format I would go straight to 2010 which does have some significant features without sacrificing the likes of trusted documents that were lost in the 2007 format but reinstated in 2010.

I still use mdb databases but design in Access 2007.

 

[boblarson]

Since you would have to pay for the Developer's edition of 2003 to get the 2003 runtime I would go to 2010 as well. 2007 had the free runtime as well but as it has been said by others, 2010 fixed some very annoying issues which plagued 2007.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

having said that - if you install A2003, but dont register it - when it expires after 50 uses, or whatever it is, it still works as runtime. so you only need one copy of A2003


I think i would go for a2010 OVER a2007 - but A2003 might be useful as a "baseline" system

 

[Rainbowhawk]

Cheers Guys

I have amended our proposal to recomend the Access 2010 option, will let you know what the outcome is.

Hawk