L7 said:
I've been reading Microsoft Help areas and posts but can't find this
info--maybe too basic:
We got 4 new Dell computers in Dec. 07 which had Office Prof. 2007. Our
nonprofit has 3 other Dell computers with Office 2003 (all computers
Windows
XP). The problem is our one custom Access database was set up by an
expensive
consultant in Access 2003 and isn't working right in Access 2007. He
doesn't
have any clients using Access 2007 so doesn't know it (or want to).
It doesn't make sense that he's a supposed expensive consultant, and yet can
not afford a mere $109? The cost of upgrading to access 2007 is only $109
dollars. So while he might not want to spend the money to upgrade, I would
hardly call him an expensive consultant since he can't seem to afford a mere
hundred dollars?
I've read that because of differences in set ups between 2003 and 2007 you
can't have the database running for Both 2003 and 2007 users anyway
Incorrect. I have clients running all kinds of different mixes of access and
they work just fine. The problem is you need a consultant who set up the
database correctly so this will work. (the simple
solution in this case is to ensure that the database is split, and the front
end is placed on each computer - if you're consultant not done this for you,
then you've had a poor consultant and someone who's very inexperienced and
worse you calling him expensive. All I can see is the guy is expensive and
incompetent)
. Because
of expenses and the network we share with another group we cannot all just
migrate to Access 2007 so
Actually what you could've done if he was a good consultant he would have
told you not to purchase access on any of the machines the office and thus
would have saved you a bundle of money. Note that for access 2007 there's a
free runtime that can be installed on any computer and it will run your
applications without having to purchase MS access (once again the moral of
story is if you really did hire a good expensive consultant you would
actually wind up saving money because a good consultant knows how to set
this up and will do the work in 1/10 the time). In other words he would have
built you the application and suggested that you use the runtime which is
free now (you would not have to purchase access for any machine).
How can I go about downgrading the 4 newer computers to Access 2003? Is it
as simple as just downloading from the web or do I need product keys and
passwords at midnight?
I don't think I would downgrade the computers, because in the near future
what will happen is as you purchase more computers you'll continue to get
the newer version of office preinstalled, and then you'll be wasting
Consulting time and money to install and downgrade software, that's money
better spent elsewhere.
It really doesn't make sense to spend good money to
go backwards.
what I would do in this situation is one of two things:
Option #1
Simply get this developer to use access 2007. Or, have him come on site to
use one of your computers that has 2007. I have converted some pretty large
applications from 2003 to 2007 and virtually everything ran as before. In
fact what this means is you really don't have to convert your old
applications to the new 2007, access 2007 will consume your access 2003
applications quite fine without any changes.
I think about the only issues are if you have built in custom menu bars. I
would suggest they get converted to ribbons, But even the old menu bars will
work as before she don't convert to 2007, so this might be a really good
option for you.
In other words you really don't have to do anything to the application, but
you MUST ensure that you place a copy of the front end on each computer in
the office. If you run the split database this way, then you can actually
run even MORE then two different versions access all at the same time...and
with the same data, and you can do this in a reliable fashion without
problems at all.
So while you might want to convert the application to access 2007, you
really don't have to do anything at all to the application except split it,
and it should run fine as it is now.
option #2
convert the application to 2007. Since 2007 has a lot of really new great
features, then what you do is on the machines that have access 2003, you
simply installed the free access 2007 run time, and the access application
will thus function on those computers that only have office 2003.
However, you really don't need to convert the application to 2007 to run it
in
your office anyway. What you must do is split the database. I
explain the concept of splitting a database in the following article of
mine, I also don't tell you that you should split the database, I'll
explain why you need to split the database.
In the case of of running
different versions of access, this is really a must do. On the other hand if
you really did hire adn expensive good consultant he would've naturally set
up the system as split anyway.
So once you split your database, it you should be able to run your
application fine without modifications on all the computers in your office
now.
