upgrade A97 or stay put

[John E. Fox]

Dear All,

Apologies if this is a duplicate posting

We are using A97 and it does what we want it to.
Is there any compelling reason to upgrade to the latest version?
If we do, it would probably also involve upgrading all of
MSOffice at the same time, i.e. Word + Excel + Powerpoint

Any advice would be appreciated.
John Fox

[jimfortune]

John E. Fox wrote:

Dear All,

Apologies if this is a duplicate posting

We are using A97 and it does what we want it to.
Is there any compelling reason to upgrade to the latest version?
If we do, it would probably also involve upgrading all of
MSOffice at the same time, i.e. Word + Excel + Powerpoint

Any advice would be appreciated.
John Fox

I keep using whatever version of Access comes with the new machines.
If Office 12 (2K6?) has enough going for it I might recommend top to
bottom replacement (about 70 users at each location). It would be nice
not to be locked into older features that must run on A97 all the way
through A12. After that, A2K6 would have to be the lowest common
denominator until at least 2010 or until I replace Access with
something else, whichever comes first. I never intended for Access to
be the main development platform at this point but management likes its
flexibility and its ability to get new concepts out on the floor
quickly. Access is so well liked that if I recommend something else it
had better be good. I'd like to go the intranet route but I can't find
another way to come even close to the RAD capabilities of Access so
I'll be looking closely at A12's suitability for that purpose.

James A. Fortune

[paul]

John,

I'd vote for staying put - "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Best regards,
J. Paul Schmidt, Freelance Web and Database Developer
http://www.Bullschmidt.com
Access Database Sample, Web Database Sample, ASP Design Tips

Apologies if this is a duplicate posting

We are using A97 and it does what we want it to.
Is there any compelling reason to upgrade to the >latest version?
If we do, it would probably also involve upgrading all of
MSOffice at the same time, i.e. Word + Excel + >Powerpoint

Any advice would be appreciated.

John Fox

[Br]

John E. Fox wrote:

Dear All,

Apologies if this is a duplicate posting

We are using A97 and it does what we want it to.
You just answered your own question:)
Is there any compelling reason to upgrade to the latest version?
If we do, it would probably also involve upgrading all of
MSOffice at the same time, i.e. Word + Excel + Powerpoint

Any advice would be appreciated.
John Fox

--
regards,

Bradley

A Christian Response
http://www.pastornet.net.au/response

[David W. Fenton]

"John E. Fox" <al******@bham.ac.uk> wrote in
news:sR******************@newsfe2-win.ntli.net:

We are using A97 and it does what we want it to.
Is there any compelling reason to upgrade to the latest version?
If we do, it would probably also involve upgrading all of
MSOffice at the same time, i.e. Word + Excel + Powerpoint

I have plenty of clients running Office 2000, Office XP and Office
2003 who still have their database application in Access 97. If
there is no reason to upgrade, don't upgrade.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc

[Br]

David W. Fenton wrote:

"John E. Fox" <al******@bham.ac.uk> wrote in
news:sR******************@newsfe2-win.ntli.net:

We are using A97 and it does what we want it to.
Is there any compelling reason to upgrade to the latest version?
If we do, it would probably also involve upgrading all of
MSOffice at the same time, i.e. Word + Excel + Powerpoint

I have plenty of clients running Office 2000, Office XP and Office
2003 who still have their database application in Access 97. If
there is no reason to upgrade, don't upgrade.

I encountered a performance issue using an A97 backend with a A2000
frontend. From memory it can be fixed by changing a table setting you
can't get to in A97 except via code?
--
regards,

Bradley

A Christian Response
http://www.pastornet.net.au/response

[David W. Fenton]

"Br@dley" <br**@usenet.org> wrote in
news:Ec******************@news-server.bigpond.net.au:

David W. Fenton wrote:

"John E. Fox" <al******@bham.ac.uk> wrote in
news:sR******************@newsfe2-win.ntli.net:

We are using A97 and it does what we want it to.
Is there any compelling reason to upgrade to the latest version?
If we do, it would probably also involve upgrading all of
MSOffice at the same time, i.e. Word + Excel + Powerpoint

I have plenty of clients running Office 2000, Office XP and
Office 2003 who still have their database application in Access
97. If there is no reason to upgrade, don't upgrade.

I encountered a performance issue using an A97 backend with a
A2000 frontend. From memory it can be fixed by changing a table
setting you can't get to in A97 except via code?

I don't know. I've only done that once, and there was no performance
issue at all.

What I meant was that my clients keep the old Access and upgrade
Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint to the latest version.

Sounds like what you're describing is the Subdatasheet property,
which I believe is irrelevant when the front end is connected to a
Jet 3.5 back end. But I could be wrong on that, since it's something
I haven't actually encountered (i.e., when my client was running
against an A97 back end, there were no performance issues; we saw no
improvement when they upgraded the back end to A2K).

--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc

[Steve Jorgensen]

On Mon, 14 Nov 2005 19:47:36 GMT, "John E. Fox" <al******@bham.ac.uk> wrote:

Dear All,

Apologies if this is a duplicate posting

We are using A97 and it does what we want it to.
Is there any compelling reason to upgrade to the latest version?
If we do, it would probably also involve upgrading all of
MSOffice at the same time, i.e. Word + Excel + Powerpoint

Any advice would be appreciated.
John Fox

The only reaon to upgrade would be if you need support form Microsoft since
A97 support has been discontinued. There are some new VBA features I like
enough to choose Access 2002 or 2003 for new projects, but I wouldn't
generally upgrade an existing project unless it needed a complete overhaul.

[polite person]

On Mon, 14 Nov 2005 19:47:36 GMT, "John E. Fox" <al******@bham.ac.uk> wrote:

Dear All,

Apologies if this is a duplicate posting

We are using A97 and it does what we want it to.
Is there any compelling reason to upgrade to the latest version?
If we do, it would probably also involve upgrading all of
MSOffice at the same time, i.e. Word + Excel + Powerpoint

Any advice would be appreciated.
John Fox

One feature of later versions is that they store text in Unicode, though it
would be too strong to say that they fully support it. Also if you use Access
as a front end to a database you also want to use as a backend on the web,
some ISPs won't support jet 3.5 databases. However evidently you aren't
needing these things.

[Bri]

polite person wrote:

On Mon, 14 Nov 2005 19:47:36 GMT, "John E. Fox" <al******@bham.ac.uk> wrote:

One feature of later versions is that they store text in Unicode, though it
would be too strong to say that they fully support it. Also if you use Access
as a front end to a database you also want to use as a backend on the web,
some ISPs won't support jet 3.5 databases. However evidently you aren't
needing these things.

Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0

I use this for both AC97 (jet 3.5) and AC2k MDB files via ASP. Works
fine. The 4.0 driver is downwardly compatible with 3.5 (and maybe even
earlier version, but I've never tried it).

--
Bri

[Salad]

John E. Fox wrote:

Dear All,

Apologies if this is a duplicate posting

We are using A97 and it does what we want it to.
Is there any compelling reason to upgrade to the latest version?
If we do, it would probably also involve upgrading all of MSOffice at
the same time, i.e. Word + Excel + Powerpoint

Any advice would be appreciated.
John Fox

If I were considering upgrading, and you are still in A97, I would wait
until the next office release. Although not yet in beta...from what
littel I've read here in this newsgroup...it's being discussed and
demo'd. It looks like it will be a major rewrite of Access...as well as
other Office products...and will be the future of Office. Of course, it
might not be as stable when initially released as A97 but of course
service patches will be forthcoming. I'm looking forward to the new
release. Hopefully it will be a breath of fresh air for all of us.

[John E. Fox]

Thank's folks.

Very useful advice - I'll stay put for a while yet.
John

Salad wrote:

John E. Fox wrote:

Dear All,

Apologies if this is a duplicate posting

We are using A97 and it does what we want it to.
Is there any compelling reason to upgrade to the latest version?
If we do, it would probably also involve upgrading all of MSOffice at
the same time, i.e. Word + Excel + Powerpoint

Any advice would be appreciated.
John Fox

If I were considering upgrading, and you are still in A97, I would wait
until the next office release. Although not yet in beta...from what
littel I've read here in this newsgroup...it's being discussed and
demo'd. It looks like it will be a major rewrite of Access...as well as
other Office products...and will be the future of Office. Of course, it
might not be as stable when initially released as A97 but of course
service patches will be forthcoming. I'm looking forward to the new
release. Hopefully it will be a breath of fresh air for all of us.