Access 2003 v/s Access 2007

[prakashwadhwani@gmail.com]

Hi !! I'm about to develop a new project for a client.

Should I go about it in Access 2003 or 2007 ? Purchasing it either
for me or for my client is not a major consideration here ... what I'd
like to know is the stability, speed & ease of use of both the
products.

I believe Access 2007 has a new file format too and that it may be
slower.

Could some of you gurus please shed some more light in detail on
this ?

Thx & Best Rgds,
Prakash.

[lyle fairfield]

Re: Access 2003 v/s Access 2007

On May 18, 10:19 am, prakashwadhw... @gmail.com wrote:

Hi !!  I'm about to develop a new project for a client.
>
Should I go about it in Access 2003 or 2007 ?   Purchasing it either
for me or for my client is not a major consideration here ... what I'd
like to know is the stability, speed & ease of use of both the
products.
>
I believe Access 2007 has a new file format too and that it may be
slower.
>
Could some of you gurus please shed some more light in detail on
this ?
>
Thx & Best Rgds,
Prakash.

It doesn't matter.

99.44% of an application's effectiveness and efficiency is directly
dependent on the developer.

A capable developer's application developed and running in Access's
slowest version is likely to be much faster and more efficient than an
incapable developer's application developed and running in Access's
fastest version.

How can we know? Here's one rule of thumb. If we complain, aloud or on
paper or in our mind more than once a week about what Access does do
or can't do, we probably need further training and experience. If we
post questions here that most of the regulars don't answer because
they can't comprehend what we are doing, trying to do, or how we got
ourselves into the mess we describe, then it's likely there are other
occupations more suited to our unique talents.

[ARC]

Re: Access 2003 v/s Access 2007

Office 2007 products do seem to like the dual-processors, where they run
quite nicely. I've found acc 2007 to be very stable. One nice feature that
acc 2007 has that 2003 does not, is the ability to seamlessly create pdf
files using the Microsoft .pdf add-in. That might be a consideration.
Additionally, acc 2007 has an automatic date-picker that becomes visible
when you click in a date field, and you can easily create alternate border
colors for datasheets, as well as buttons that have both text and images.

Good luck!

<prakashwadhwan i@gmail.comwrot e in message
news:1ee9f124-0de4-49a3-b3c6-298d0f8069a6@i7 6g2000hsf.googl egroups.com...

Hi !! I'm about to develop a new project for a client.
>
Should I go about it in Access 2003 or 2007 ? Purchasing it either
for me or for my client is not a major consideration here ... what I'd
like to know is the stability, speed & ease of use of both the
products.
>
I believe Access 2007 has a new file format too and that it may be
slower.
>
Could some of you gurus please shed some more light in detail on
this ?
>
Thx & Best Rgds,
Prakash.

[Salad]

Re: Access 2003 v/s Access 2007

prakashwadhwani @gmail.com wrote:

Hi !! I'm about to develop a new project for a client.
>
Should I go about it in Access 2003 or 2007 ? Purchasing it either
for me or for my client is not a major consideration here ... what I'd
like to know is the stability, speed & ease of use of both the
products.

Are you sure purchasing is not a major consideration? The other day I
wanted to see what the cost of a standalone Access 2003 package cost.
Most sites said it's unavailable or out of stock or a discontinued item.

As time goes on it will be more difficult to find A2003.

I believe Access 2007 has a new file format too and that it may be
slower.

As noted by another, you can upgrade your computers to a dual processors.

I suppose you should look towards the future, not the past. You mention
this is a new project. Do you expect to do more work or be assigned to
create new projects for this client in the future? If yes, you may want
to bite the bullet on this one and go with A2007. MS is not going
backwards and sooner or later, I don't know when, MS will stop
supporting A2003.

Like dynamite

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf1CiLBg4qk

Could some of you gurus please shed some more light in detail on
this ?
>
Thx & Best Rgds,
Prakash.

[prakashwadhwani@gmail.com]

Re: Access 2003 v/s Access 2007

On May 18, 9:55 pm, Salad <o...@vinegar.c omwrote:

prakashwadhw... @gmail.com wrote:

Hi !! I'm about to develop a new project for a client.

>

Should I go about it in Access 2003 or 2007 ? Purchasing it either
for me or for my client is not a major consideration here ... what I'd
like to know is the stability, speed & ease of use of both the
products.

>
Are you sure purchasing is not a major consideration? The other day I
wanted to see what the cost of a standalone Access 2003 package cost.
Most sites said it's unavailable or out of stock or a discontinued item.
>
As time goes on it will be more difficult to find A2003.
>

I believe Access 2007 has a new file format too and that it may be
slower.

>
As noted by another, you can upgrade your computers to a dual processors.
>
I suppose you should look towards the future, not the past. You mention
this is a new project. Do you expect to do more work or be assigned to
create new projects for this client in the future? If yes, you may want
to bite the bullet on this one and go with A2007. MS is not going
backwards and sooner or later, I don't know when, MS will stop
supporting A2003.
>
Like dynamitehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf1CiLB g4qk
>

Could some of you gurus please shed some more light in detail on
this ?

>

Thx & Best Rgds,
Prakash.

Hmmm ... Salad, your input makes a lot of sense & backed up by Arc's
comments on the new features of Access 2007, plus his experience of
Access 2007 seeming to be pretty stable, I think I'll go with Access
2007.

I'm curious as to the other new features of Access 2007 ... what Arc
pointed out was very interesting. Could anyone please highlight some
more new features of A2007 as compared to A2003 ? or ... please point
me to a site with some detailed info on this.

Thanks everyone who's contributed to this thread.

Best Rgds,
Prakash.

P.S. I'll check this thread continually for another 3 to 4 days in
case anyone has any more ideas to share.

[Tom van Stiphout]

Re: Access 2003 v/s Access 2007

On Sun, 18 May 2008 12:42:00 -0700 (PDT), prakashwadhwani @gmail.com
wrote:

Try search.microsof t.com, and within 30 sec you will find pages like
this one:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access/HA100241851033.aspx

-Tom.

>On May 18, 9:55 pm, Salad <o...@vinegar.c omwrote:

>prakashwadhw.. .@gmail.com wrote:

Hi !! I'm about to develop a new project for a client.

>>

Should I go about it in Access 2003 or 2007 ? Purchasing it either
for me or for my client is not a major consideration here ... what I'd
like to know is the stability, speed & ease of use of both the
products.

>>
>Are you sure purchasing is not a major consideration? The other day I
>wanted to see what the cost of a standalone Access 2003 package cost.
>Most sites said it's unavailable or out of stock or a discontinued item.
>>
>As time goes on it will be more difficult to find A2003.
>>

I believe Access 2007 has a new file format too and that it may be
slower.

>>
>As noted by another, you can upgrade your computers to a dual processors.
>>
>I suppose you should look towards the future, not the past. You mention
>this is a new project. Do you expect to do more work or be assigned to
>create new projects for this client in the future? If yes, you may want
>to bite the bullet on this one and go with A2007. MS is not going
>backwards and sooner or later, I don't know when, MS will stop
>supporting A2003.
>>
>Like dynamitehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf1CiLB g4qk
>>

Could some of you gurus please shed some more light in detail on
this ?

>>

Thx & Best Rgds,
Prakash.

>
>
>
>Hmmm ... Salad, your input makes a lot of sense & backed up by Arc's
>comments on the new features of Access 2007, plus his experience of
>Access 2007 seeming to be pretty stable, I think I'll go with Access
>2007.
>
>I'm curious as to the other new features of Access 2007 ... what Arc
>pointed out was very interesting. Could anyone please highlight some
>more new features of A2007 as compared to A2003 ? or ... please point
>me to a site with some detailed info on this.
>
>Thanks everyone who's contributed to this thread.
>
>Best Rgds,
>Prakash.
>
>P.S. I'll check this thread continually for another 3 to 4 days in
>case anyone has any more ideas to share.

[Salad]

Re: Access 2003 v/s Access 2007

prakashwadhwani @gmail.com wrote:

On May 18, 9:55 pm, Salad <o...@vinegar.c omwrote:
>

>>prakashwadhw. ..@gmail.com wrote:
>>

>>>Hi !! I'm about to develop a new project for a client.

>>

>>>Should I go about it in Access 2003 or 2007 ? Purchasing it either
>>>for me or for my client is not a major consideration here ... what I'd
>>>like to know is the stability, speed & ease of use of both the
>>>products.

>>
>>Are you sure purchasing is not a major consideration? The other day I
>>wanted to see what the cost of a standalone Access 2003 package cost.
>>Most sites said it's unavailable or out of stock or a discontinued item.
>>
>>As time goes on it will be more difficult to find A2003.
>>
>>

>>>I believe Access 2007 has a new file format too and that it may be
>>>slower.

>>
>>As noted by another, you can upgrade your computers to a dual processors.
>>
>>I suppose you should look towards the future, not the past. You mention
>>this is a new project. Do you expect to do more work or be assigned to
>>create new projects for this client in the future? If yes, you may want
>>to bite the bullet on this one and go with A2007. MS is not going
>>backwards and sooner or later, I don't know when, MS will stop
>>supporting A2003.
>>
>>Like dynamitehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf1CiLB g4qk
>>
>>

>>>Could some of you gurus please shed some more light in detail on
>>>this ?

>>

>>>Thx & Best Rgds,
>>>Prakash.

>
>
>
>
Hmmm ... Salad, your input makes a lot of sense & backed up by Arc's
comments on the new features of Access 2007, plus his experience of
Access 2007 seeming to be pretty stable, I think I'll go with Access
2007.

If you asked your question back in early 2007 I would have suggested
waiting on 2007 so as to let the pioneers find the bugs.

I would recommend you bookmark some sites.

Allen Brownes site. http://www.allenbrowne.com/tips.html. Maybe start
with http://www.allenbrowne.com/tips.html#Upgrade where you can find
handy tips for when you upgrade to A2007.

Tony Toews site. http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm. He has a great
tool for distributing the Access front end. You can find it under the
Downloads page at http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/autofe.htm.

Then there's the great MVPS site for Access tips and code.
http://www.mvps.org/access/.

If you can't find a feature you'd like to see in Access you might find
the solution at Stephen Leban's site. http://www.lebans.com/

You can find good design examples at Albert Kallal's site.
http://www.members.shaw.ca/AlbertKal.../msaccess.html or
http://members.shaw.ca/albertkallal/.

There's other great sites of course but these folks have some good stuff
to read for a start.

I'm curious as to the other new features of Access 2007 ... what Arc
pointed out was very interesting. Could anyone please highlight some
more new features of A2007 as compared to A2003 ? or ... please point
me to a site with some detailed info on this.
>
Thanks everyone who's contributed to this thread.
>
Best Rgds,
Prakash.
>
P.S. I'll check this thread continually for another 3 to 4 days in
case anyone has any more ideas to share.

[Albert D. Kallal]

Re: Access 2003 v/s Access 2007

<prakashwadhwan i@gmail.comwrot e in message news:65d6de39-f218-4cba-9b55-

I'm curious as to the other new features of Access 2007 ... what Arc
pointed out was very interesting. Could anyone please highlight some
more new features of A2007 as compared to A2003 ? or ... please point
me to a site with some detailed info on this.

There is lot of things in 2007 that is really nice. Here is a few:

** Buttons background can now be transparent. People have asked for this
feature for a long time now. In addition to transparent buttons, MS access
now supports a number of really nice looking themes, and when you change
your theme, you obviously want the new background "theme" of your
application to show "though" the buttons (in place of that drab gray
button). Access 2007 allows this.

** buttons can now have both text in graphics associated with them. (golly
about time eh?). Before we were forced to choose graphic only or text only
for a button. What we did was simply place a button on a form with a
graphic, and then place below or beside the button a "label" with some text
on it (this was always a bit kluge looking) . I really wished for graphics
and text on a button. We now have this ability.

Here's a screen shot of the events template I just downloaded from
Microsoft's site, and you can see both the transparency of the buttons and
how graphics + text can be placed on a button. And, throw in the new themes
ability, and your software will look really up to date now.

** Forms and reports now have a new layout system that lets you move the
labels of controls, and the actual detail controls together. 15 years ago
the access report writer was the gold standard by which all report writers
are judged by. 15+ years later, and the report writer is still one of the
best. However, I was doing layout, and was commenting to a co-worker how
tedious and silly it was that I had to move all the labels by hand, and then
move all the detail section by hand in a report insert a new field (column)
in the middle of that report.

Suffice to say, they've addressed this problem with the new report
writer, and it's absolutely fantastic. I can't believe they came up with a
nice solution to this problem. Here is a video of this new feature in
action:

http://office.microsoft.com/home/video.aspx?assetid=ES102386441033&width=884&height=540&startindex=0&CTT=11&Origin=HA102374121033

(I will warn you the first couple of time to use the above grouping, you
have to get used to how works, otherwise it'll drive you bonkers, the
instant you figure how to use this new control and grouping, you'll love it)

** Another big feature in the above demo is that you can design your reports
in "view" mode now. This new "layout" mode for report saves you flipping
back and forth, back and forth all day long when you doing minor layout
changes to a report (and thus also saves you having the report regenerate
and reload the data also...and that saves even more time again).
In other words you can design the report while
*viewing* the data. This feature is really great when you're doing the final
finishing touches on a report, and it saves a lot of time.

*** Date Picker
We'll by golly, do you think it's about time that when you place a date
field on a form, you get little calendar drop down button built in for free
now? Wow!! I have to admit that access team are really doing a good job
here, and listening to our requests. This again is a really nice touch for
your applications.

*** new picture control
This again is been an area that's pretty been lacking in MS access. With the
new image control system, you can now finally develop applications in which
you deal with a lot of pictures. Even more amazing is you can actually show
different pictures in a column in a continuous form now. Hence, even when
your pictures are external (linked) in a folder somewhere, when you navigate
between different records on the form, you don't have to write any code to
update the image/picture that is to be displayed for that record. (and the
picture display supports the new png graphic formats as well as the old jpg
formats). Finally we can build applications in MS access without having to
do handstands. and the embedding of pictures and bloating problems has been
fixed. As well the report is able to handle those larger images and
not blow up (run out of memory).

In one fell swoop us developers can now develop applications that deal with
a lot of images, and this was opens up a whole new area and class of
applications that most of us developers just simply avoided because MS
access was so limited in this area. Now, we can build photographic
databases, or catalogs with images with far greater ease, and more
importantly far more reliability.

So, hey, we can now display different pictures in a continuous form. About
time!!

*** developer tools and developer edition is free now.
Yup, you heard this correct. with access 2007, you can now download
installed and use the runtime, and the packaging wizard tools. Last time I
looked, an upgrade from access 2003 to 2007 was about $109 dollars. When you
think about this, that makes MS access a bargain right now. by believe the
full retail version of MS access is only $229.

*** pdf ability
This is a nice touch, and a few other posters mention this feature.

*** data collection forms
This simply means you can build an e-mail system using outlook, and e-mail
out a person a question or form, the users fills out this form, and sends it
back to you, and the data is then placed into a MS access for you.

*** improved cut and paste from excel
You can now paste in data from excel, and the data types etc. are set
correctly for you.

*** Control layouts
This is shown in the above video. The control layout can also be used to
group your buttons together to build something that looks like a menu bar
(and that means the menu bars placed on the actual form itself, not in the
top menu bar like we used to). This what the events template in the above
screen shot shows.

This means when you add or remove buttons from your form, the rest the
buttons move over. The same thing occurs when you resize one button, the
whole group of buttons gets moved over as you do this. So this new layout
system is a real nice touch to MS access, and again it's about time. Once
again forms can also be changed while in view mode and you can move things
around, and again don't have to flip back and forth between design mode and
layout mode.

*** a new "stacked" form type. This new stacked form type has a continues
type format the top (detail), and as I navigate this grid, the bottom
half of the form will be a standard layout form and moves along with the top
part of the form. Quite a common interface that many of us developers use
for years, but now I can develop this without having to write code, or use
a form + sub form combination.

*** Ribbon bar
You can hide the ribbon, but it's also a really nice touch. if you're into
building applications that look modern and cool, you can't beat the ribbon.
It's just really nice looking.

*** far better share point integration.
The options to link and/or upload tables to share point "list" works way
better then they did in access 2003.

I could probably type on for quite a while about more features. However,
between the nice looking themes and updated UI, and free developer tools,
access 2007 is a big release, and really has some nice features that us
developers have been asking for over the years.

--
Albert D. Kallal (Access MVP)
Edmonton, Alberta Canada
pleaseNOOSpamKa llal@msn.com

[Albert D. Kallal]

Re: Access 2003 v/s Access 2007

"Albert D. Kallal" <PleaseNOOOsPAM mkallal@msn.com wrote in message
news:7P4Yj.2781 56

Here's a screen shot of the events template I just downloaded from
Microsoft's site, and you can see both the transparency of the buttons and
how graphics + text can be placed on a button. And, throw in the new
themes
ability, and your software will look really up to date now.

sorry, forget to put the screen shot up...here it is :

http://www.kallal.ca/tpics/index.htm

Note also how the new record navigation at the bottom of the form looks (you
can customize this a little also now), and there is a seach box also.

--
Albert D. Kallal (Access MVP)
Edmonton, Alberta Canada
pleaseNOOSpamKa llal@msn.com

[ARC]

Re: Access 2003 v/s Access 2007

Also, to elaborate on stability... I went live with an access 2007 runtime
app back in October. Now, with 230+ customers converting to the new version
(from my previous access 97 version), with the access 2007 runtime, I can
safely offer my vote that this is the most stable version of Access I've
seen. I've only seen one corrupted database to date, and this was caused by
the user attempting to compact across a network wire (which I've since
disabled). Stability is NOT a concern with access 2007.

The Ribbons do have a fairly high learning curve, but if you just download
some examples, and put in the hours to learn them, it will pay off.
Interestingly enough, the look alone will get you some sales, but then
package a very modern look, with a logically laid out and functional app,
and sales will take off. I've had nothing but positive feedback from all my
customers who purchased the upgrade, and from new users, regarding using the
new ribbon interface, versus the old File, Open, Edit, style menus. Here's
a link for ribbon samples from Avenius Gunter's site, I used these quite a
bit when I first started: http://www.accessribbon.de/en/ And the Microsoft
link on ribbons: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa338202.aspx

I say if you're doing a new app, better to go with acc 2007 now, then have
to write upgrade code for the BE data later.

Good luck!

Andy
<prakashwadhwan i@gmail.comwrot e in message
news:65d6de39-f218-4cba-9b55-c839d3cce3c3@p2 5g2000hsf.googl egroups.com...

On May 18, 9:55 pm, Salad <o...@vinegar.c omwrote:

>prakashwadhw.. .@gmail.com wrote:

Hi !! I'm about to develop a new project for a client.

>>

Should I go about it in Access 2003 or 2007 ? Purchasing it either
for me or for my client is not a major consideration here ... what I'd
like to know is the stability, speed & ease of use of both the
products.

>>
>Are you sure purchasing is not a major consideration? The other day I
>wanted to see what the cost of a standalone Access 2003 package cost.
>Most sites said it's unavailable or out of stock or a discontinued item.
>>
>As time goes on it will be more difficult to find A2003.
>>

I believe Access 2007 has a new file format too and that it may be
slower.

>>
>As noted by another, you can upgrade your computers to a dual processors.
>>
>I suppose you should look towards the future, not the past. You mention
>this is a new project. Do you expect to do more work or be assigned to
>create new projects for this client in the future? If yes, you may want
>to bite the bullet on this one and go with A2007. MS is not going
>backwards and sooner or later, I don't know when, MS will stop
>supporting A2003.
>>
>Like dynamitehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf1CiLB g4qk
>>

Could some of you gurus please shed some more light in detail on
this ?

>>

Thx & Best Rgds,
Prakash.

>
>
>
Hmmm ... Salad, your input makes a lot of sense & backed up by Arc's
comments on the new features of Access 2007, plus his experience of
Access 2007 seeming to be pretty stable, I think I'll go with Access
2007.
>
I'm curious as to the other new features of Access 2007 ... what Arc
pointed out was very interesting. Could anyone please highlight some
more new features of A2007 as compared to A2003 ? or ... please point
me to a site with some detailed info on this.
>
Thanks everyone who's contributed to this thread.
>
Best Rgds,
Prakash.
>
P.S. I'll check this thread continually for another 3 to 4 days in
case anyone has any more ideas to share.