What are the differences between Access 2000 and 2002-2003 formats?

[Michael R]

Hello.

I've been writting an Access app on office 2003 for sometime, and couldn't find any info on the net on what are the differences between the 2 formats, and why should I use Access 2002-2003 in favour of Access 2000.

Help would be appriciated.

[ADezii]

Hello.

I've been writting an Access app on office 2003 for sometime, and couldn't find any info on the net on what are the differences between the 2 formats, and why should I use Access 2002-2003 in favour of Access 2000.

Help would be appriciated.

Just subscribing, as soon as I get a chance I'll list the enhancements/advantages of Access 2002 over 2000.

[ADezii]

Just subscribing, as soon as I get a chance I'll list the enhancements/advantages of Access 2002 over 2000.

I'll list some differences between Access 2000 and Access 2002 right from the Access 2002 Developer's Handbook. This list is by no means comprehensive. The most significant changes can be grouped into five major areas:

1. Programmability
   1. Access 2002 includes VBA 6.3 which is an incremental advance over the VBA 6.0 language used with Access 2000.
   2. Forms in 2002 support an Undo() Event, and some Controls support Undo() and Dirty() Events.
   3. Access 2002 contains the new Printer Object and Printers Collection which makes it much easier to pro-grammatically control Printing Properties.
   4. New ImportXML and ExportXML Methods of the Application Object offer a programmatic interface between XML/XSL files and Access data and presentation.
2. Access 2002 Forms and Reports
   1. Forms now offer two new views of your data: PivotTable and PivotChart.
   2. 2002 Reports now support the OpenArgs, Modal, PopUp, Borderstyle, AutoResize, AutoCenter, MinMaxButtons, CloseButton, and ControlBox Properties.
   3. Forms and Reports both have a new Removable Property.
   4. Forms and Reports can be saved as Data Access Pages.
3. 2002 Data Access
   1. Access 2002 includes the SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine which contains the new features of SQL Server 2000.
   2. The new Liked Tables Wizard allows linking of Tables to Access Projects via SQL Server Linked Servers.
   3. Access Projects are enhanced with new options to copy and transfer SQL Server Stored Procedures and Functions as well as new graphical designers for the above mentioned.
   4. You can now make use of SDQL Server Extended Properties.
   5. In 2002, you can toggle the SQL dialect supported in Queries (standard Access SQL or ANSI 92 Extended SQL).
4. Internet and Intranet features
   1. The Data Access Page Designer now takes advantage of Extended Properties to correctly handle Lookup Fields and create Labels for Fields.
   2. The DAP Designer has extensively been enhanced with features like better Control sizing, Control multi-select, and more intuitive cursor cues.
   3. Data Access Pages are enhanced with a number of data-related events: AfterUpdate(), AfterDelete(), AfterInsert(), BeforeUpdate(), BeforeInsert(), Dirty(), Focus(), RecordExit(), and Undo().
   4. You can bind Data Access Pages to XML files.
   5. Access data can be exported to XML with optional XLS and XSD support.
   6. Access Forms, Reports, and Data Access Pages can also be exported to XML/XLS files.
5. Other Improvements
   1. Access 2002 introduces an updated MDB file format for Access Databases, but it is also capable of using Access 2000 files without conversion.
   2. A 2002 DB can be converted to either Access 2000 or Access 97.
   3. Multiple levels of Undo and Redo are now supported for most Object Designers.
   4. Automatic logging of Conversion Errors.
   5. Compact and Repair functionality has been improved to better recover broken Forms and Reports.
   6. In Access 2002, you can pro-grammatically supply a Database Password when opening a Database.