Upgrading advise

J

John

Hi

I have an access 97 app which I have the option to upgrade to either access
2000 or access 2003. Which one should I choose. I have heard nasty things
about access 2000.

Thanks

Regards
 
J

John Vinson

Hi

I have an access 97 app which I have the option to upgrade to either access
2000 or access 2003. Which one should I choose. I have heard nasty things
about access 2000.
Click to expand...

I've certainly had better experiences in general with 2003. If you're
doing anything with XML or more generally with the Web, 2003 has a
fuller set of tools. It's also readily available and will have full
Microsoft support for longer. I'd go with it.

John W. Vinson[MVP]
 
A

Allen Browne

The original release of Access 2000 was an unmitigated disaster, but with
the service packs applied for both Office 2000 and for JET 4, it is now very
usable and stable.

If you are buying something, you might as well buy 2003. Once you get it
configured (e.g. that Macro | Security nonsense), it is better than 2000
IMHO.

For a list of the kinds of issues you might need to be aware of, see:
Converting from Access 97 to 2000, 2002 or 2003
at:
http://allenbrowne.com/ser-48.html
 
R

Ron Weiner

I agree with everything that John and Allen said, but want to add one more
thing for you to consider. If the application needs to be distributed
widely over a number of users that have different versions of Access 2000,
2002, and 2003 then I would opt to develop the application using Access 2k.
It will run on all three of these environments and as Allen has said once
all of the service packs have been applied is VERY stable.

I have developed and have been supporting an enterprise level Access 2K (Sql
backend) application in a number of local school districts since 2001. The
poorer districts often have a nasty mis-match of MS office versions. We have
gotten away with one version of the application (A2K) for use everywhere by
leveraging the Access runtime on the Office 97 and No Office installed
desktops. We are installed on way over a 1000 desktops now and have had
less than a handful of configuration problems (ALWAYS with the runtime by
the way) in the 5 years we have been doing this.

Even for smaller projects where I am sure the user will be only using Access
2003 I usually do the development in Access 2k. There are obviously
advancements in the newer versions that would be neat to have (I have at
times lusted for the Printer object), but with the help of Getz, Litwin,
Gilbert, Lebans, and this newsgroup I have been able to work in an single
code base, and simplify my life.
 
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