Using Office XP Developer

W

Wanderin Penn

Hi. I've written an Access database which I now need to distribute to
colleagues who do not have Access on their machine. I am told that Office XP
Developer will allow this, but does this mean that I would have to write the
whole database again in Developer?
Also I need to distribute the database farily quickly - is Office XP
Developer easy to understand coming from a purely Access background?
Look forward to your advice, thanks
 
S

Scott McDaniel

Office Developer provides you with the Access RunTime, which is basically
Access without the design capabilities, and provides you with the legal
authority to distribute this to whomever you wish. It also includes other
items (the Package and Deploy wizard, for example) geared towards the
developer. Normally you don't have to make any changes to your database to
use the Access runtime, although there are some quirks. YOu can try your db
in the runtime environment to see if everything works as anticipated by
starting it with the /runtime switch. For example, build a shortcut on your
desktop and set this as the target:

"FUll path to MSACCESS.exe" "Full path to your database" /runtime

this will allow you to simulate the runtime environment.

Beware, however, that distributing Access databases is a very tricky
prospect, especially if you'll be installing the runtime. Many experienced
developers use the Sagekey scripts (www.sagekey.com) in conjunction with a
commercial installer (Wise, Installshield) to deploy their apps. Even then,
Access is notoriously fickle about deploying to large, disaparte userbases
where you have little control over OS/Office combinations.
 
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