Upgrading Access

[Guest]

My dept is considering upgrading from Access 97 which we are using right now.
We are thinking about upgrading all the way to Access 2007. Does anyone
have some good information about whether Access 2007 is a good product or
should we upgrade to Access 2000 or 2003. Some say that Access 2000 and 2003
are not as stable as Access 97 and they are more of a resource hog. Is this
true? If anyone has some good recommendations than that would be great. We
use Access a lot to anaylize data. Thank You

 

[Allen Browne]

Here's some info on the issues you may face in updating from A97:
http://allenbrowne.com/ser-48.html

Here's the issues and comments on updating to A2007:
http://allenbrowne.com/Access2007.html

Hopefully that will enable you to make an informed decision on the best
choice for you at this point.

 

[Baz]

I think that going from 97 to 2007 would be madness. Using 2007 live at all
would be inadvisable in my opinion, until it's had a service pack or two,
but upgrading to it from 97 is asking for a world of pain.

There's nothing much wrong with 2003, it's pretty good, as is 2002, but
avoid 2000 at all costs.

Why do you want to upgrade? Unless there's something in a more recent
version that you need, there's nothing at all wrong with 97. If it ain't
broke don't fix it.

 

[DAVID]

Here's some info on the issues you may face in updating from A97:
http://allenbrowne.com/ser-48.html

Here's the issues and comments on updating to A2007:
http://allenbrowne.com/Access2007.html

Hopefully that will enable you to make an informed decision on the best
choice for you at this point.

Allen, I notice that you don't say anything about Excel.

I think that the inability to update tables linked to Excel is also a
problem when moving from A97 to A2K+.

Note that this was not a problem with the original versions of A2K+, it
only became a problem with one of the 2K3 and 2K2 service packs, but it
had a retroactive affect on all installed versions because they share
registry entries.

(david)

 

[Allen Browne]

Good point, David. Have updated both articles.

The "Convert from A97" article now mentions that Microsoft removed the
ability to update an existing Excel file.

The "Convert to A2007" article also mentions that the ability to publish a
report to Excel has been removed.