Steve,
The only provision MS Office makes to distribute an Access database that
someone can open/run without having MS Access installed on their own
computer is with Microsoft Office Developer's edition (for whatever version
of Office that you own). The Developer's edition comes with tools which
allow you to package up a Runtime Installation of Access which installs all
of the files needed to open an Access database but, through registry
entries, removes the capability to make design changes.
Access runtime installations work very well in environments where you know,
or have control of, the user's pc environment; but they can be problematic
to varying degrees when you have no idea of what sort of computer your demo
will be installed on - its operating system, other installations of MS
Office products, their versions, etc. Shipping a sample database in this
manner could lead to negative reactions ranging from: "Hey, your sample
database doesn't work!" to "Hey, your sample database trashed my
machine!".
You may want to consider creating a PowerPoint presentation on a cd which is
composed of screen captures of the important features of your database.
Incorporating the PowerPoint viewer and making the cd autorun will make the
entire package self-contained. Here is a link to a very informative web
site which will show you how:
http://www.echosvoice.com/autoruncd.htm#Do it yourself
To capture various screens from your Access database, you can use PrtScrn or
Alt-PrtScrn. For more efficient screen capture with some image editing
capability, you might want to investigate a tool named SnagIt
http://www.snagit.com .
hth,
--
Cheryl Fischer
Law/Sys Associates
Houston, TX
Steve said:
I develop Microsoft Access Databases. I would like to distribute
demonstration discs of the databases, however come upon the problem that the
recipient of the demo must also have Microsoft Access installed on their PC.
How can I overcome this problem, where the recipient does not have
Microsoft Access installed?
