Periodic prompt to Convert database

[melickas]

We designed a custom application using Office Developer Tools '97 which
included a Run-time version of Access--- so it would not matter if our
customer even had any version of Access on their computer. The
application ran without problems on our customer's computer for 2-3
years. Then our customer bought a new computer and we had to reinstall
the application. Everything was ok for approximately 6 months until our
customer was "cleaning up" their system and began deleting files, and
the next time they went to open the application they got this message:

"You have selected a database created in a previous version of
Microsoft Office Access. You can convert or open the database. Either
action may take several minutes.

Then it gives two boxes Convert Data or Open Data.

Convert Data:
Convert the file to the default file format specified on the Advanced
tab of the Options dialog box under the Tools menu.
If you convert to Access 2000 you won't be able to open the file in
Access 97 or earlier; If you convert to Access 2002-2003 you won't be
able to open the file in Access 2000 or earlier.

OpenDatabase:
Open in Access, but maintain the original file format so that you can
still use the file in previous versions of Access. If you open in
Access you can view objects and modify records, but you can not make
design changes only in the previous version"

We reinstalled the appliation from the original CD and copied their
current MDB into the directory. The program has again run successfully
for over 2 months. Now the customer has the same error message and has
not been "cleaning up" their system.

Any ideas on why this periodically occurs?

Thank you!

['69 Camaro]

Hi.

Any ideas on why this periodically occurs?
Yes. The customer has also installed Access 2003 on the workstation, but
has failed to configure the workstation for multiple versions of Access.
Whenever the "Convert or Open" dialog window appears, then the customer is
attempting to open the Access 97 file, but the previous use of Access was
with Access 2003, not the Access 97 Runtime.

The customer can configure the workstation so that both versions of Access
can co-exist in harmony, or the customer can create Windows shortcuts to
open specific versions of Access to run specific Access files. The syntax
for the shortcut is:

C:\SomeDir\Access97Runtime.exe C:\AnotherDir\MyDB.mdb

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.
<me******@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:11**********************@i40g2000cwc.googlegr oups.com... We designed a custom application using Office Developer Tools '97 which
included a Run-time version of Access--- so it would not matter if our
customer even had any version of Access on their computer. The
application ran without problems on our customer's computer for 2-3
years. Then our customer bought a new computer and we had to reinstall
the application. Everything was ok for approximately 6 months until our
customer was "cleaning up" their system and began deleting files, and
the next time they went to open the application they got this message:

"You have selected a database created in a previous version of
Microsoft Office Access. You can convert or open the database. Either
action may take several minutes.

Then it gives two boxes Convert Data or Open Data.

Convert Data:
Convert the file to the default file format specified on the Advanced
tab of the Options dialog box under the Tools menu.
If you convert to Access 2000 you won't be able to open the file in
Access 97 or earlier; If you convert to Access 2002-2003 you won't be
able to open the file in Access 2000 or earlier.

OpenDatabase:
Open in Access, but maintain the original file format so that you can
still use the file in previous versions of Access. If you open in
Access you can view objects and modify records, but you can not make
design changes only in the previous version"

We reinstalled the appliation from the original CD and copied their
current MDB into the directory. The program has again run successfully
for over 2 months. Now the customer has the same error message and has
not been "cleaning up" their system.

Any ideas on why this periodically occurs?

Thank you!

[melickas]

Wow, a 69 Camaro...sweet!

Thank you for the reply. How can a "workstation be configured so that
both versions of Access can co-exist in harmony" ? Is this a setting
within one of the versions of Access?

Thank you again!

['69 Camaro]

Hi.

How can a "workstation be configured so that
both versions of Access can co-exist in harmony" ? Is this a setting
within one of the versions of Access?
The "configuration" is mostly how the multiple versions of Microsoft Office
are installed. Microsoft recommends not installing multiple versions of
Office on the same computer, so it will never be "some setting" that can be
changed to get the multiple versions to work together without stepping on
each other.

Basically, the versions need to be installed in the order of manufacturer's
release, i.e., Office 97 was released by Microsoft before Office 2003, so
Office 97 should be installed first, then Office 2003. Your customer lucked
out here.

The versions must be installed in separate directories, without allowing the
installer to remove the earlier versions. Your customer may have lucked out
here, too, but your description doesn't prove or disprove whether the Access
97 Runtime version is still installed.

The versions must not be allowed to re-register themselves whenever one
version of an Office application is opened after the other version was
opened. This can manifest itself with either a significant delay when
opening the application or by displaying the message, "Please wait while
Microsoft Office <version> installs ...." Access 97 is particularly bad
about this. This is a very annoying problem when User-level security has
been implemented, because when switching back and forth between versions of
Access, the user will will be joined to the default workgroup, regardless of
whether or not the user was joined to a secure workgroup the last time that
version of Access was opened.

If the versions aren't re-registering themselves, then the last version
installed will, by default, open a file whenever it's double-clicked, so if
this isn't the desired behavior (and it isn't in your customer's case),
further configuration needs to be done to get the earlier version to open
the file. Or a third-party utility for detecting the file version prior to
opening the file can be installed, or the right-click pop-up menu can be
configured to allow user selection from the multiple versions of Office
applications to open the file.

Most computer users don't want to pay an IT expert to do any of this
configuring, but they aren't savvy enough to configure it successfully
themselves, so the Windows shortcut method I suggested earlier is a viable
alternative that works regardless of whether or not they've configured the
workstation to work with both versions of Access.

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.
<me******@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:11**********************@u72g2000cwu.googlegr oups.com... Wow, a 69 Camaro...sweet!

Thank you for the reply. How can a "workstation be configured so that
both versions of Access can co-exist in harmony" ? Is this a setting
within one of the versions of Access?

Thank you again!

[melickas]

Thank you very much for such a detailed reply. I really appreciate it!

['69 Camaro]

You're welcome! Glad to help.

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.
<me******@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:11**********************@g10g2000cwb.googlegr oups.com...

Thank you very much for such a detailed reply. I really appreciate it!