Access References

[David]

Hello

I have a little project file that a few of the users at work use to make our
life easier when managing our information.
It started with me using the the computer at work with Access 2002 installed
but recently I have been on the road and have been doing bug fixes from my
laptop.
I have Office 2003 on my laptop and I use Excel Automation.

If I compile on my laptop the Excel Automation doesn't work because the
reference set up is for Excel 11.0 but Office 2002 only has the libraries for
Excel 10.0.
My work IT Dept will not install the runtime version 2003 to make it work
for us.

Can I compile and reference Excel 10.0 from my laptop in Access 2003 so I
don't have to do it on my work computer to allow me to send in bug fixes
remotely?

David

 

[Sylvain Lafontaine]

One possible solution would be to use late binding instead of early binding,
so that you won't need any reference at all to either Excel 10 or 11; see
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/245115/en-us .

 

[David]

Hello again
Thank you for your very helpful reply.

Before I switch to Late Binding I have one question.
The last section of this article says that I should just reference the
earliest version that of Excel present on the client system.
Can I do that? I just need to reference Excel 10.0.
Do I need to install the runtime on my computer to get the right library?

David

 

[Sylvain Lafontaine]

For using the runtime version as a replacement of the full version of Excel
2000 on your machine, I really don't know if this will work or not.
Obviously, if you want to develop and publish your application against
different versions of Excel, the best thing to do would probably be to have
all the necessary versions installed on your development machine. Maybe
using the runtime as a replacement for one of these versions will work,
maybe not, I don't know but personally, I wouldn't lose my time trying it;
because even if it work, you'll never know when you'll need the full version
for whatever reason. (And if this happens, don't be surprised if it's also
an emergency.). But if your client can provide you with the runtime, you'll
lose no money trying it on your machine; so it's your call.

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

Before I switch to Late Binding I have one question.
The last section of this article says that I should just reference the
earliest version that of Excel present on the client system.
Can I do that? I just need to reference Excel 10.0.
Do I need to install the runtime on my computer to get the right library?

I'm offline right now so I can't check the KB article. But ignore
that section.

Late binding means it doesn't matter what version of Excel is
installed. So long as you don't use a feature present in a new
version that doesn't exist in an older version.

Late binding means you can safely remove the reference and only have
an error when the app executes lines of code in question. Rather than
erroring out while starting up the app and not allowing the users in
the app at all. Or when hitting a mid, left or trim function call.

This also is very useful when you don't know version of the external
application will reside on the target system. Or if your organization
is in the middle of moving from one version to another.

For more information including additional text and some detailed links
see the "Late Binding in Microsoft Access" page at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/latebinding.htm

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
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