Change to Access 2007?

[tbeers]

I am currently using Access 2003 and am pretty satisfied. I have to deploy numerous appications this year. Any reason to go to Access 2007 for development and use the apparently free "runtime" version for deployment?

\-Tom

by the way, some of you guys are really smart

Thanks

-Tom,

[missinglinq]

By all accounts, ACC2007 has a rather large learning curve! It's more a matter of learning how things are done in the new version than learning about the new features. I've heard it said that it's probably much easier for someone new to Access to learn 2007 than for an experienced Access developer to make the transition!

Don't really know about that, but if you're satisfied and comfortable with 2003 and you have multiple applications to be developed and deployed in the coming year, trading up at this point would be, in my opinion, a big mistake.

A far more prudent approach would be to purchase the new version and play with it when you have the time, possibly "mirroring" an app you're currently developing in ACC2003, until you're comfortable with it. There have been reports of problems running the new version and previous versions on the same PC, so you may want to place it on a separate machine from your usual development box.

Allen Browne, the "Wonder from Down Under," has been developing Access databases and providing Access training since Version 1 came out in 1992. He has a couple of excellent white papers on 2007, including 2007: The good, the bad and the buggy! He also gives advice on upgrading, including routines to prevent users in 2007 from going in and changing forms/reports, etc. of apps developed in previous versions, which apparently is fairly easy to do.

Allen, who's been working with 2007 since its release date, made the comment in a post, last week I think it was, that he wouldn't start using it for client apps until the first service pack was issued and (given the 2003- SP3 fiasco) proven to cure more problems than it caused.

Converting to 2007

Prevent Access 2997 users from modifying existing databases

Linq ;0>

[Jim Doherty]

I am currently using Access 2003 and am pretty satisfied. I have to deploy numerous appications this year. Any reason to go to Access 2007 for development and use the apparently free "runtime" version for deployment?

\-Tom

by the way, some of you guys are really smart

Thanks

-Tom,

Personally I would wait for service pack unless you are happy to add yourself to the list pulling your hair out understanding bugs that should have been fixed in previous versions yet are carried over. Learn the new interface by all means but put into wide circulation? Are you gaining anything substantial by it? I don't like beta testing in the marketplace at the best of times so I think you might know what my answer would be

Jim :)

[Ericks]

Personally I would wait for service pack unless you are happy to add yourself to the list pulling your hair out understanding bugs that should have been fixed in previous versions yet are carried over. Learn the new interface by all means but put into wide circulation? Are you gaining anything substantial by it? I don't like beta testing in the marketplace at the best of times so I think you might know what my answer would be

Jim :)

Maybe my opinion can add to your decission making.

I have worked with Access 2000 and then moved to 2003. About a month ago I decided to progress to Access 2007. I'm a frequent Access user and have put together several databases that are being used in the company I work. All Access 2000 and 2003. And these run slow on Access 2007. So much, that I'm back at the 2003 version. In other words, for me there was no advantage in moving to Access 2007. I kind of compare it to Windows XP and Vista. If you're happy with XP, stick to it. It works great and doesn't have the bloat of Vista. I guess the same goes for Access 2003. Not all is negative though. What I did like was the very easy access to menu items. But there is a learning curve for that.

Eric

[tbeers]

Maybe my opinion can add to your decission making.

I have worked with Access 2000 and then moved to 2003. About a month ago I decided to progress to Access 2007. I'm a frequent Access user and have put together several databases that are being used in the company I work. All Access 2000 and 2003. And these run slow on Access 2007. So much, that I'm back at the 2003 version. In other words, for me there was no advantage in moving to Access 2007. I kind of compare it to Windows XP and Vista. If you're happy with XP, stick to it. It works great and doesn't have the bloat of Vista. I guess the same goes for Access 2003. Not all is negative though. What I did like was the very easy access to menu items. But there is a learning curve for that.

Eric

Thanks for the insight. I was doing some research on 2007. Is it true that there is no user level security for Access 2007. Apparently, if you convert an older database, it strips away all of the use security. Is that what sharepoint is all about?

-Tom

[NeoPa]

I am currently using Access 2003 and am pretty satisfied. I have to deploy numerous appications this year. Any reason to go to Access 2007 for development and use the apparently free "runtime" version for deployment?

\-Tom

by the way, some of you guys are really smart

Thanks

-Tom,

No, None.
Possibly an over-simplification but many of the reasons have been supplied already.

BTW Thank you for the compliment. I happen to agree with you. Many of our experts are particularly smart and, what's more, as they do it all for free that says even more about them then just their smarts :)

Beware Vista & Office 2007. They were released well before they were ready and some of the new ideas are seriously ill-considered IMHO. Commercial forces have produced an unholy mess it seems.

[Megalog]

Another consideration:
As of Office 2007 SP1, you -cannot- run compiled dbs (.ACCDE,.ACCDR) files created with SP1, on a machine that only has the runtime installed. You can however still run the normal uncompiled db (.ACCDB) with runtime.

SP1 will update the runtime, but you have to have a 2007 office product installed. So if a user is running a full office 2003 installation, and the office 2007 runtime file, they cannot run the SP1 update, and cannot use the ACCDE's created from a developer with SP1 installed. Found this out the hard way at work yesterday =/

The only upside, is microsoft already knows about this.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946205/

As far as how 2007 performs, I've found it to be a bit slow as well. Although, there's been a few cases where we've been able to optimize things a bit more with the new features (Split form views, multivalue lists, etc).
Also, with the custom themes you can create, it just plain -looks- sharper if done right, with a lot less work than it took in 2003.

I would've rather waited until a few more service packs came out, but it wasn't my call. We're integrating sharepoint into our processes, and 2007 fit best with that approach. If you're interested, here's the Office 2007 SP1 list of 'fixes'. Access suprisingly had the least amount of fixes.. not sure if that's good or bad.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/B/C/F/BCFBEC81-ED9E-40A3-BBF0-1410B67A365A/Office%202007%20Service%20Pack%201%20Changes_all.xls