Access 2007 and OLE Server Nightmare!

[lisa]

This is ridiculous.All I want to do is add a picture to an existing database
and I, too, get the error message telling me to reinstall my ole server.
I'm no idiot, but I have a few questions.
1. What the heck is an OLE serve?r
2. How do I find out what mine is?
3. Howcome every place I look for an answer it is assumed that I am fluent
in Visual Basic? I'm taking Access in a class, for Pete's sake. I just want
to figure out how to use this stuff, NOT program it. Can somebody help me in
English?

 

[Arvin Meyer [MVP]]

Apparently you have associated the images (bmp, jpg, etc) that you want to
use with a program that is not an OLE (Object Linking & Embedding) server.
For the most common file types MS-Paint should work. You don't need to
reinstall it (unless it isn't there) just re-associate the file types.

 

[David W. Fenton]

This is ridiculous.All I want to do is add a picture to an
existing database and I, too, get the error message telling me to
reinstall my ole server.

This is an upshot of the way OLE data is stored in Jet OLE fields.
It connects the data to the application that was associated with the
file type on the machine where it was originally inserted. In some
cases, as with OLE controls on reports, there is nothing that can be
done about it -- you can't even delete it from the report!

But if it's data stored in a table, you should be able to right
click it and edit it and Windows should ignore the original file
association and use your own computer's application for that file
type. If you save the file in the application it opens to edit it,
that should update the OLE wrapper to point to the right application
on your computer.

Keep in mind that for this kind of data, it actually doesn't matter
if the data type is not correctly defined for every computer it runs
on -- it will still be usable. That is, if I use Paintshop Pro to
edit a bitmap graphic and store it in an OLE field, and you open
that data table on your computer and you have only MS Paint, it will
perhaps tell you that the OLE server for Paintshop Pro is not
installed, but it won't prohibit you from opening or viewing the
data. And you'll likely only get the message when you try to open
it, as opposed to, say, displaying it on a form.