Access 2003 opening Access 97 databases

[drax]

I work at a small site of a large company. Corporate is pushing more and
more rules on us as far as software that we can run. We have several
databases, that are used extensively, that were either created in or
updated to Access 97. We have updated the rest of our office suite to 2003
( the latest version that corporate has approved for use). I think that
pretty soon they will not allow us to run Access 97. I know that you can
open the 97 databases with 2003 without converting them, but you must answer
the question about updating them each time. My question is can you
configure Access 2003 to open the older databases without converting them
automatically? This would give me some time to go through the databases to
make sure they will make the conversion without disrupting production.

Thanks,

Steve

 

[Rick Brandt]

I work at a small site of a large company. Corporate is pushing more
and more rules on us as far as software that we can run. We have
several databases, that are used extensively, that were either
created in or updated to Access 97. We have updated the rest of our
office suite to 2003 ( the latest version that corporate has approved
for use). I think that pretty soon they will not allow us to run
Access 97. I know that you can open the 97 databases with 2003
without converting them, but you must answer the question about
updating them each time. My question is can you configure Access
2003 to open the older databases without converting them
automatically? This would give me some time to go through the
databases to make sure they will make the conversion without
disrupting production.

If your applications are split (which ALL multi-user apps should be) then you
just convert a copy of the front end to 2003 and give that to the users that
have 2003. The back end stays as 97 which both front end versions will work
just fine with.

If your applications are not split then you have much bigger problems than
versioning. I would suggest you take care of that first.

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

Rick's advise is good. However, for an answer to your specific question, see
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824260/

 

[drax]

If your applications are split (which ALL multi-user apps should be) then
you just convert a copy of the front end to 2003 and give that to the
users that have 2003. The back end stays as 97 which both front end
versions will work just fine with.

If your applications are not split then you have much bigger problems than
versioning. I would suggest you take care of that first.

I appreciate the advise on splitting the databases. I'm not the author of
any of these databases, nor am I an access expert. Most of these databases
have run in their current configuration for over 10 years with minor
tweaking. I will certainly look into splitting them, but I don't know much
about it. Making matters more difficult is the fact that my time is not
dedicated solely to IT concerns, and I'm pushing the limits of hours / week
as it is. Making matters even worse is that corporate doesn't share any of
the concerns of the local plant, so time must be spent on matters considered
to be more pressing by my bosses.

Are there any good sites that speak to the splitting of databases?

Thanks again,

Steve

 

[drax]

Rick's advise is good. However, for an answer to your specific question,
see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824260/

Thank you Doug. This is exactly what I was looking for. I can implement
this fairly easily and it will hopefully buy me the time to make sure all
the databases will convert properly while satisfying corporate's need to
dictate our version of Access. Once that is done I will look into splitting
the databases. I wish I had more time to dedicate toward access, but
unfortunately the extent of my training is 5 classroom days back in 99 or
2000.

Thanks again

Steve