David,
I believe my presentation on A First Look at Access 2003 to the Metroplex
Access Developers user group is available for download from the MAD site,
http://www.madtx.org. As far as I can tell, it has avoided the
every-other-version-is-to-be-avoided syndrome, but unless you are a
corporate _enterprise_, there is little _compelling_ reason to upgrade from
Access 2002. If you develop for large enterprises, particularly if you
exchange data with XML-enabled applications to which you can't link, then
the upgrade will likely be attractive.
I have found it surprisingly stable and solid in the Beta 2 with Refresh
version.
The one thing I've complained to Microsoft about is the Help -- in an
attempt to make it better, they apparently did make some improvements to the
contents, but many have commented they do not like the new interface -- it
eliminated the "Index" option of finding what you want.
Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP
"David Hare-Scott" <pr*****@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:GS*********************@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
From what I can glean from M$ propaganda the big thing for Access 2003
is XML. I cannot think right now why I would want to use XML with
Access unless I needed to exchange complex data remotely with foreign
platforms or systems - which I don't. I can see some of the reasons for
XML in other contexts but what is the value for Access?
Generally is Access 2003 a useful upgrade or is it just another
marketting ploy to get more $ from us for not much functionality?
Can anybody assist here either from their experience or by giving a
reference to any review that is factual and objective?
David