Making Access available to people without Access

[Guest]

This may be a ridiculous question, but is there any way that I can make my
Access database available to users who don't have Access installed on their
machines? I have just spent several weeks creating this database and was
only told after the fact that many of the poeple who need to access the
information don't have Access installed on their machines.

If there are any alternatives to starting all over again, I'd love to hear
them. Thanks!

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

You have 3 main options:

1) Rewrite your application in a language that can be compiled into an
executable such as VB or VC++ (note that your data will still have to be
kept in an external MDB file)

2) Rewrite your application as a web app

3) Get the Access Developer edition that's appropriate for whatever version
of Access you're using (see
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/developereditionversions.htm for details of
what you need to look for) What this allows you to do is package your
application together with a royalty-free run-time version of Access. Users
who don't have Access installed will be able to install the run-time and use
your application. They will not be able to make design changes to your
application (nor to any other MDB)

 

[Pat Hartman\(MVP\)]

"They will not be able to make design changes to your application (nor to
any other MDB)"
I always like to add "with the Access runtime" to this statement because the
Access runtime is not an alternative to security. If a user has a retail
version of Access, he can open and modify your application if it is not
otherwise secured.

When using the Access runtime, you need to make custom menus because the
standard ones will not be available. You also need to be extra careful with
error handling. Unhandled errors will cause the database to simply shut
down. So, you'll need to replace most if not all your macros with the
equivalent VBA. Search the MSDN library and kb for articles on the runtime.
They go into more detail.

 

[George Nicholson]

An additional possibility: If certain users only need to be able to *view*
data (not reports & forms) then perhaps you could set up an Excel workbook
as a viewer of your Access tables & queries (via VBA & DAO coding).

Your use of the phrase "...need to access the information" makes me think a
read-only solution might be viable.

HTH

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

Good point, Pat. As you probably guessed, that's from my "stock answers"
file, so I'll change it!

 

[Travis]

Good point, Pat. As you probably guessed, that's from my "stock answers"
file, so I'll change it!

I don't suppose you've coded your stock answers with some kind of macro
have you Doug?

Its a semi-serious question because there are genuine situations in my
line of work where this type of functionality would be handy and I'm
working on doing an Access app which writes things to Word and
eventually I want to write things to Access (emails) as well. Its a
"tick one of these boxes and the corresponding canned text appears at
the designated place" type of program.

Travis

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

I don't suppose you've coded your stock answers with some kind of macro
have you Doug?

No, nothing that sophisticated, but then I'm not sure it's possible with
Outlook Express, since it doesn't expose itself for automation.

Its a semi-serious question because there are genuine situations in my
line of work where this type of functionality would be handy and I'm
working on doing an Access app which writes things to Word and
eventually I want to write things to Access (emails) as well. Its a
"tick one of these boxes and the corresponding canned text appears at
the designated place" type of program.

What Tony Toews has at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/newsgroupanswersmdb.htm may be a good start
for how to store the canned text. There might be something in his Email FAQ
at http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/email.htm that'll help as well.

 

[zhouyang]

I don't suppose you've coded your stock answers with some kind of macro
have you Doug?

Its a semi-serious question because there are genuine situations in my
line of work where this type of functionality would be handy and I'm
working on doing an Access app which writes things to Word and
eventually I want to write things to Access (emails) as well. Its a
"tick one of these boxes and the corresponding canned text appears at
the designated place" type of program.

Travis

 

[Guest]

Yes, my users only need to be able to access the information that is
contained in the database - in fact, I MUCH prefer that they aren't able to
make any design changes. (As a new user, I don't know enough to fix something
if someone else screws it up - at this point, I can barely fix my own
screw-ups!)

Care to offer any guidance on the VBA and DAO coding that I will need to
know to make this happen?

I'm also looking into the web options offered up by Mr. Steele.

Thanks!!