Idiot to Access

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Guest

I acquired a Database done in Access 2000. I need to make some design changes
but I can't. Seems it was saved a certain way. Anyway around this?
 
I acquired a Database done in Access 2000. I need to make some design changes
but I can't. Seems it was saved a certain way. Anyway around this?
Click to expand...

I'm sure there is, but not with a lot more information. Why can't you
make design changes? Error messages? Access security - do you get
asked for an ID and password?

John W. Vinson[MVP]
 
To add to John's requests for more information, what is your level of
experience using Access?

Is the database an .MDB file, or perhaps an .MDE? If the latter, you cannot
make design changes.

Regards

Jeff Boyce
<Access MVP>
 
No Experience to Access and yes it is a .MDE, Is there no way around this or
to convert it back to a usable format so that I can make design changes? The
design layout for reports contain information no longer valid and I would
like to remove it. I didn't want to have to start fresh...Anything?
 
Feel free to check at Google.com for folks claiming to offer a product that
can convert an .MDE back to an .MDB ... I have run across no confirmed
applications able to do this, but I'm just one person.

As far as I know, you can only start over on forms/reports/queries design.

Regards

Jeff Boyce
<Access MVP>
 
Jeff said:
Feel free to check at Google.com for folks claiming to offer a product that
can convert an .MDE back to an .MDB ... I have run across no confirmed
applications able to do this, but I'm just one person.

As far as I know, you can only start over on forms/reports/queries design.

Regards

Jeff Boyce
<Access MVP>
Click to expand...

This behavior is by design. For one thing, using .MDE files allows
database developers to keep the database design from being modified
(thus keeping any resulting bad software behavior from being blamed on
the original developer) or copied. But it also eliminates a lot of
material that would otherwise take up memory space without contributing
to performance (which is good). OTOH, that extra material includes all
the comments that were part of the original .MDB. So, even if you are
able to convert the file to a workable .MDB, it's possible that the
names of objects won't mean much, and you won't have much guidance
beyond what you know now on how everything in there fits together.

If possible, you might try to contact the original developer, or his
employer if any, to locate a copy of the .MDB. (But you've probably
already tried that, I imagine.)

[...]
 
No Experience to Access and yes it is a .MDE, Is there no way around this or
to convert it back to a usable format so that I can make design changes? The
design layout for reports contain information no longer valid and I would
like to remove it. I didn't want to have to start fresh...Anything?
Click to expand...

Just to add to Jeff's comments - a .mde file has no design tools, and
any VBA code in the database is in a compiled state. The source code
for your VBA is simply gone, it doesn't exist anywhere other than in
the .mdb file from which the .mde was built.

If you do not have that .mdb file, the best you can probably do is to
create a new .mdb file, and use File... Get External Data... Import to
import the forms and reports. This may fail if the forms have attached
VBA code, but if they're just simple manually built forms they
probably won't.


John W. Vinson[MVP]
 
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