Ron2006 said:
It is planned that we will be migrating from Office 2003 to Office
2007 in the next couple of months.
We have multiple applications written and maintained in Access 2003
and for an unspecified amount of time we will need to be running them
via both 2003 and 2007.
I know that some tweaking will need to be done to run some of the mdbs
under 2007. My question is, will I be able to update and correct a
2003 application via Access 2007 and still save it as a 2003 mdb that
will still operate from both versions. It is a split application on a
network and the Tables are in 2000 format.
Since you have a split application, then you are in good shape here, and a
split setup will facilitate the upgrading of those software systems in an
easy and seamless manner.
What we REALLY want to avoid here is to have (allow) multiple users try and
open the 2003 front end and have other users opening it with 2007. you
should try and avoid this, and furthermore it is a specially at the same
time, as that will simply be very unstable. (I am assuming for the most part
that when you speak of a split system, the front in part was installed on
each WorkStation, and you really need to do this).
A client of mine was upgrading approximately 25 computers. There was about
3-4 other software vendors and companies applications running at this
business location. They also were running about 4-5 of my access
applications that I'd written for them over the years. Virtually every one
of the other software vendors said that "man", you're going have nothing but
hell and all kinds and incompatibility problems when you attempt to upgrade
your access applications. the reason is they've heard some money or stories
from other organizations and companies that have attempted upgrade their
applications.
It turns out because I was running a split application, as as each new
desktop was upgraded to the new version of windows and office (they were
upgrading about four to five machines per week), I simply gave them a new
copy of the front end for the correct version of access running on those new
desktops. Keep in mind I simply left the backend data file formats in the
older previous version of access.
It was interesting to see the huge amount of problems and incompatibilities
that the other software vendors had in the building as they tried to upgrade
their new software to work with the old software the same time. They had
huge problems, especially on some of the applications that were trying to
share data.
In other words of all the other software vendors from accounting systems to
everything else has HUGE AMOUNTS of problems during this upgrade process.
The access applications were upgraded without a SINGLE problem and were the
least problematic. the other software vendors and the building really had to
eat crow on this one. The secret to the story of course was the fact that we
always installed the software front ends on each computer, and we simply
flipped them to a newer version of that front end as the computers were
upgraded. Everything ran just perfectly well.
So what I'm suggesting to you that you would likely should perhaps put 2007
access front ends on the new machines that upgrade to office 2007. You could
probably give them access 2003 front ends, but I *strongly* suggest that you
do not allow different versions of the access to work on that same front end
by different users.
I also suggest that if you do maintain and do design application changes
using access 2007 for those access 2003 Applications I suggest that you do a
de-compile and then a compact + repair before you distribute your access
2003 application to those 2003 users. On the other hand this really begs the
question as to why you were never using a mde, and you SHOULD be. So, just
remember when you do the de-compile make sure you hold down the shift key
and you do not allow ANY code or form t load and run in access 2007 (else
some automatic compiling will occur, and then you'll have a situation in
which you have a access 2007 trying to compile some of the access 2003
code).
So when you de-compile the 2003 application just make sure you hold down the
shift key and do NOT allow any code to run. You can then compact/repair (and
again hold down shift key to ensure that no call runs at all). At this point
you can then safety distribute the access 2003 up application to those users
that are running access 2003. however you would be better off to take this
to a WorkStation create a mde for those 2003 users.
I assume in the above that you've always distributed the application part or
so called front ends to each of the computers. If you been doing this then
you can very well have a seamless transition between the two versions
without any interruption in operations at all...
