Buying Access 2003

[Guest]

I'm looking into buying Access 2003 but before I do I want to make sure I get
what I'm looking for.

I would like to distribute my databases as stand alone db's. Microsoft's
website says I can do this on their website but has anyone bought the product
and had good experience with it? I have never developed stand alone dbs
before so user friendly is a must.

Any feed back would be appriciated!

 

[Joseph Meehan]

I'm looking into buying Access 2003 but before I do I want to make
sure I get what I'm looking for.

I would like to distribute my databases as stand alone db's.
Microsoft's website says I can do this on their website but has
anyone bought the product and had good experience with it? I have
never developed stand alone dbs before so user friendly is a must.

Any feed back would be appriciated!

I have not used it, by many of the people here earn their livings from
just that product.

 

[Norman Yuan]

By "stand alone dbs", if you mean you design a database, along with its user
interface, such as forms, reports..., with Access and distribute the
*.mdb/*.mde/*.adp/*.ade file to people, who have Access installed on their
computer, yes, you can. If, however, "stand alone" means the users do not
have Access installed, then no, they cannot use your dbs (more accurately,
they cannot use the user interface part of your DB, i.e. forms, reports....
They may be able to use the data stored in the file, depending on their
knowledge and software they have).

 

[slscanlon3]

I use Access for a living. I have hit the 2 GB limit too many times on
some databases that we are looking into sequel and have already
purchased some industry based data warehouses. I love Access for many
of its functionalities. When it comes to multiuser databases, I am
finding some issues with 2003 vs 2000. I think it may be something to
do with the security settings on our work computers that cause Access
2003 to lock up a lot when multiple users are in it. Plus the
databases were programmed in Access 2000 and were not converted to 2003
because of many issues in the conversion process.

I would say overall it is a good buy. If you are planning on housing
tables with more than 5 to 10 million records in it (like us), I would
look to Sequel.

 

[Douglas J Steele]

I think you may have misread the website. There is no way to create
stand-alone databases.

What does exist is a royalty-free run-time version of Access that you can
install on your user's desktop, along with your application (either MDB or
MDE). Your user will be able to use the database, but will not be able to
make design changes to it (or any other database). (Just in case that's not
clear, they will not be able to change queries, forms, reports, macros or
modules, nor will they be able to add or remove tables, or columns from
existing tables. They will, however, be able to add data to the tables,
provided you've given them a way to do that in your application)

To get this run-time version, you need to purchase the following:

- Microsoft Access 2003
- Visual Studio Tools for Office 2003 (which includes the Access 2003
Developer Extensions)

The ADE is the product that gives you the license to deploy the 2003 runtime
components and you have to have Access 2003 installed in order to install
the ADE.

If you're using MSDN, note that while VSTO is available in all subscription
levels of MSDN, the Access Developer Extensions are not included with all
versions. ADE is only available at Universal level.

The stand-alone VSTO box includes both VSTO and the ADE.

See http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/office/officetools.aspx for more
details

Actually, I believe they're up to VSTO 2005 now, so you may need to purchase
that, not VSTO 2003.

 

[slscanlon3]

To clarify my post... I have the run-time version, I thought that was
what was being inquired about.

 

[Tony Toews]

I would say overall it is a good buy. If you are planning on housing
tables with more than 5 to 10 million records in it (like us), I would
look to Sequel.

Absolutely. But to clarify this somewhat you can still use Access to
do the UI portion, queries, forms, reports and VBA code.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm

 

[Albert D.Kallal]

If, however, "stand alone" means the users do not
have Access installed, then no, they cannot use your db

Yes, but if you purchase the developers edition, then the end users don't
have to install, or purchase ms-access, as it will packaged with your
application as a windows install. So, a royalty free edition of ms-access
does exist. To split hairs...yes, you must have ms-access installed, but it
can be packed with your application. (in fact, the package wizard creates a
standard windows install...and thus users don't need to have ms-access
already...nor pay for it).

In fact, your users don't even have to be told it is a ms-access
application....

 

[Guest]

Hi Douglas,
I have looked into the VSTO, and the box reads "Visual Studio Tools for
Office, Version 2003 is a suite of software tools that provides developers
the tools and technologies they need to build the next generation of Word and
Excel based solutions for the Microsoft Office System. " - will this still
work for Access?!? It looks like it's only for Word and Excel...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/odc_2003_ta/html/odc_ancvsto_05.asp
--
Thank you! - Jennifer

I think you may have misread the website. There is no way to create
stand-alone databases.

What does exist is a royalty-free run-time version of Access that you can
install on your user's desktop, along with your application (either MDB or
MDE). Your user will be able to use the database, but will not be able to
make design changes to it (or any other database). (Just in case that's not
clear, they will not be able to change queries, forms, reports, macros or
modules, nor will they be able to add or remove tables, or columns from
existing tables. They will, however, be able to add data to the tables,
provided you've given them a way to do that in your application)

To get this run-time version, you need to purchase the following:

- Microsoft Access 2003
- Visual Studio Tools for Office 2003 (which includes the Access 2003
Developer Extensions)

The ADE is the product that gives you the license to deploy the 2003 runtime
components and you have to have Access 2003 installed in order to install
the ADE.

If you're using MSDN, note that while VSTO is available in all subscription
levels of MSDN, the Access Developer Extensions are not included with all
versions. ADE is only available at Universal level.

The stand-alone VSTO box includes both VSTO and the ADE.

See http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/office/officetools.aspx for more
details

Actually, I believe they're up to VSTO 2005 now, so you may need to purchase
that, not VSTO 2003.

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

Don't know why the labelling is so poor.

As I mentioned earlier, you need to make sure that you're getting the Access
2003 Developer Extensions in whatever version of VSTO 2003 or VSTO 2005 you
buy.

--
Doug Steele, Microsoft Access MVP

(no private e-mails, please)

Hi Douglas,
I have looked into the VSTO, and the box reads "Visual Studio Tools for
Office, Version 2003 is a suite of software tools that provides developers
the tools and technologies they need to build the next generation of Word
and
Excel based solutions for the Microsoft Office System. " - will this still
work for Access?!? It looks like it's only for Word and Excel...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/odc_2003_ta/html/odc_ancvsto_05.asp