Access 2003 cannot open .mde made by Access 2007?

[Song Su]

I have Access 2003 application and plan to install Access 2007 on my
computer. Before doing that, I want to make sure if I use Access 2007 to
open my Access 2003 .mdb file, make .mde using 2007 and people with Access
2003 still can open it.

I got message "this database is in a unrecognized format" when use Access
2003 to open .mde made by Access 2007.

According to Microsoft:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178943(TechNet.10).aspx

If I use Access 2007 to open .mdb and make .mde, Access 2003 should be able
to open it. Is something wrong here?

 

[Beetle]

A2007 has an updated database engine called Ace or something clever like
that (maybe it's "Maverick" <g>) and by default it saves files with an .accdb
or .accde extension, which is not readable by earlier versions. You need to
make sure that you explicitly save your file as an earlier version (.mdb/.mde)
then you shouldn't have problems.

 

[Song Su]

When I use A2007 to open my A2003 file, the title bar says 2002-2003 format.
On the database tool tab, I clicked Make MDE. However, A2003 users still
cannot open it. What do you mean 'explicitly save file?"

Thanks.

 

[Klatuu]

That is because you are using 2007 to make it. What you can do for those not
yet on 2007 is to download the free 2007 Developers extensions and deploy a
runtime version of 2007 to those who are still on 2003. you can then convert
all your apps to 2007 and make accde files (like mde except for 2007) and
they will be able to run them using the 2007 runtime.
Be sure you also install Office 2007 SP 1.