Convert A97 to A2000 or A2002 ?

[tombsy]

Hello Group.

I work for a company who is about to embark on a long awaited Office upgrade
from Office 97 to Office XP.

Office XP comes with Access 2002.
I am an accomplished Access developer so I have read up on the complexities
of upgrade in the corporate environment.
Also the need to carry out a full MDB audit to get rid of the redundancy etc
etc

My specific question is this ....
We have thousands of user built databases that I want to automatically
convert from Access97 but I cant get a clear answer from the interweb as to
which format to convert to (Access 2000 or Access 2002).

We do not have any Access2000 users, so can I leap from A97 to A2002 ?
or should I do a staged upgrade A97 to A2000. Let the dust settle, then
convert A2000 to A2002.
your advise is greatly appreciated.
kind regards
tombsy

['69 Camaro]

Hi, Tombsy.

We do not have any Access2000 users, so can I leap from A97 to A2002 ?

Yes.

or should I do a staged upgrade A97 to A2000. Let the dust settle, then
convert A2000 to A2002.

The time and effort to do two conversions and test them probably isn't worth
it. While Access 2000 database format files can be opened in Access 2000
and later, making them practically universal, if you plan to distribute MDE
files, then you'll have to convert to Access 2002 database format before
creating the MDE. In addition, Access 2002 has a few features that Access
2000 doesn't, so I'd suggest converting to Access 2002 database format.

HTH.
Gunny

See http://www.QBuilt.com for all your database needs.
See http://www.Access.QBuilt.com for Microsoft Access tips and tutorials.
http://www.Access.QBuilt.com/html/ex...ributors2.html for contact
info.
"tombsy" <ic************ @tiscali.co.ukw rote in message
news:45******** **@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tisca li.com...

Hello Group.

I work for a company who is about to embark on a long awaited Office
upgrade from Office 97 to Office XP.

Office XP comes with Access 2002.
I am an accomplished Access developer so I have read up on the
complexities of upgrade in the corporate environment.
Also the need to carry out a full MDB audit to get rid of the redundancy
etc etc

My specific question is this ....
We have thousands of user built databases that I want to automatically
convert from Access97 but I cant get a clear answer from the interweb as
to which format to convert to (Access 2000 or Access 2002).

We do not have any Access2000 users, so can I leap from A97 to A2002 ?
or should I do a staged upgrade A97 to A2000. Let the dust settle, then
convert A2000 to A2002.
your advise is greatly appreciated.
kind regards
tombsy

[Marshall Barton]

tombsy wrote:

>I work for a company who is about to embark on a long awaited Office upgrade
from Office 97 to Office XP.

Office XP comes with Access 2002.
I am an accomplished Access developer so I have read up on the complexities
of upgrade in the corporate environment.
Also the need to carry out a full MDB audit to get rid of the redundancy etc
etc

My specific question is this ....
We have thousands of user built databases that I want to automatically
convert from Access97 but I cant get a clear answer from the interweb as to
which format to convert to (Access 2000 or Access 2002).

We do not have any Access2000 users, so can I leap from A97 to A2002 ?
or should I do a staged upgrade A97 to A2000. Let the dust settle, then
convert A2000 to A2002.

If you have no A2K users, then definitely skip A2000 and go
directly to A2003.

I have had no trouble just letting Access do its automatic
conversion of several A97 apps. Maybe my apps don't use
anything that has a problem and others have different
experiences, but I recommend that you try it before worrying
about imaginary problems.

--
Marsh

[Lyle Fairfield]

tombsy wrote:

We have thousands of user built databases that I want to automatically
convert from Access97

When the users open them in 2002 they'll be given the choice of
converting them or just using them in their current format. If they
choose conversion it will be to a new file so the old will live on
safely; that is they can choose to convert MyMDB to MyMDB2002 and both
files will continue to exist.

You might want to encourage or remind or direct them not to delete the
old 97 version and you may want to provide them with some kind of
archiving procedure to put that old file away safely so that it is not
opened in error when the user thinks the new file is open. IMO, the
latter sort of trivial and almost laughable situation (confusing the
files) is the most likely to cause you problems, but there won't be so
much laughing if data are compromised.

Will these new files run well with just the default conversion? All
that I have converted have done so with the exception of those which
used many Windows API calls. Some of these failed, not because the
version of Access changed but because the version of Windows had
changed as well. But my guess is that your thousands of databases will
not contain extensive API calls.

If you were to follow this route you could reserve your time for
hands-on help of those few who did experience a problem. They should
still have the original available for you.

[Allen Browne]

As Gunny pointed out, you must use the A2002 file format if you want to
create MDEs. Otherwise there is little practical difference.

I understand that corporate environments have a deal of inertia when it
comes to moving, but Office XP seems like a strange choice at this point.
Access 2007 has so much new functionality, e.g.:
http://allenbrowne.com/Access2007.html
It's understandable if they consider that too new to use yet, but Office
2003 is a very stable and mature product now. Office XP will exit the
support cycle sooner than 2003, so I don't see the logic there.

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia
Tips for Access users - http://allenbrowne.com/tips.html
Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

"tombsy" <ic************ @tiscali.co.ukw rote in message
news:45******** **@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tisca li.com...

Hello Group.

I work for a company who is about to embark on a long awaited Office
upgrade from Office 97 to Office XP.

Office XP comes with Access 2002.
I am an accomplished Access developer so I have read up on the
complexities of upgrade in the corporate environment.
Also the need to carry out a full MDB audit to get rid of the redundancy
etc etc

My specific question is this ....
We have thousands of user built databases that I want to automatically
convert from Access97 but I cant get a clear answer from the interweb as
to which format to convert to (Access 2000 or Access 2002).

We do not have any Access2000 users, so can I leap from A97 to A2002 ?
or should I do a staged upgrade A97 to A2000. Let the dust settle, then
convert A2000 to A2002.

your advise is greatly appreciated.

kind regards

tombsy

[tombsy]

Thanks for both your comments.

We are going to roll out Access XP runtime and set the registry switch for
prevent the upgrade message from appearing.
Anyone opening a A97 db using A2002 should be able to use the db but not
change objects(as an interim step).
Then i can run my bespoke conversion database which will automatically work
thro a list of MDB files and perform the conversion to A2002 for all the non
dev built apps. Our controlled dev built apps will get the full dev
treatment as will likely have complications with the upgrade.

"tombsy" <ic************ @tiscali.co.ukw rote in message
news:45******** **@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tisca li.com...

Hello Group.

I work for a company who is about to embark on a long awaited Office
upgrade from Office 97 to Office XP.

Office XP comes with Access 2002.
I am an accomplished Access developer so I have read up on the
complexities of upgrade in the corporate environment.
Also the need to carry out a full MDB audit to get rid of the redundancy
etc etc

My specific question is this ....
We have thousands of user built databases that I want to automatically
convert from Access97 but I cant get a clear answer from the interweb as
to which format to convert to (Access 2000 or Access 2002).

We do not have any Access2000 users, so can I leap from A97 to A2002 ?
or should I do a staged upgrade A97 to A2000. Let the dust settle, then
convert A2000 to A2002.
your advise is greatly appreciated.
kind regards
tombsy

['69 Camaro]

You're welcome. Good luck with it.

Gunny

See http://www.QBuilt.com for all your database needs.
See http://www.Access.QBuilt.com for Microsoft Access tips and tutorials.
http://www.Access.QBuilt.com/html/ex...ributors2.html for contact
info.
"tombsy" <ic************ @tiscali.co.ukw rote in message
news:45******** **@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tisca li.com...

Thanks for both your comments.

We are going to roll out Access XP runtime and set the registry switch for
prevent the upgrade message from appearing.
Anyone opening a A97 db using A2002 should be able to use the db but not
change objects(as an interim step).
Then i can run my bespoke conversion database which will automatically
work thro a list of MDB files and perform the conversion to A2002 for all
the non dev built apps. Our controlled dev built apps will get the full
dev treatment as will likely have complications with the upgrade.

"tombsy" <ic************ @tiscali.co.ukw rote in message
news:45******** **@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tisca li.com...

>Hello Group.

I work for a company who is about to embark on a long awaited Office
upgrade from Office 97 to Office XP.

Office XP comes with Access 2002.
I am an accomplished Access developer so I have read up on the
complexities of upgrade in the corporate environment.
Also the need to carry out a full MDB audit to get rid of the redundancy
etc etc

My specific question is this ....
We have thousands of user built databases that I want to automatically
convert from Access97 but I cant get a clear answer from the interweb as
to which format to convert to (Access 2000 or Access 2002).

We do not have any Access2000 users, so can I leap from A97 to A2002 ?
or should I do a staged upgrade A97 to A2000. Let the dust settle, then
convert A2000 to A2002.
your advise is greatly appreciated.
kind regards
tombsy