Migrating from Access 2000 to 2003 - new features? 3

[Blackshark]

Hello all,

The business I work for is migrating to Office 2003 next year from 2000. I was wondering if any Access 03 developers could point out any new features I should look in to, to improve my systems as I migrate them. I have tried to find 'whats new in 2003' etc... but would appreciate any other developers views.

The systems I write import csv files, show an image on screen that relates to each data row, after correction by the user, the data is stored in a seperate table and reports are run off this. I use PDF Pro Plus library to automate the production of the reports since 2000 does not support landscape and portrait reports in the same file (ie. snapshot). All the code is already written with ADO rather than DAO.


For the image view - I use the KODAK libraries which I know will need to be altered for moving to Win XP.

Thanks for you time

Tim

 

[THWatson]

Tim
Here's a link to an article on the Microsoft site...

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010916581033.aspx

It's called "Migrating to Access 2003."

The default file system in Access 2003 is actually Access 2000.

Tom

 

[Blackshark]

Tom,

Thanks - I dont have a problem migrating the databases. I have browsed around MS, TEKTIPs, googled several different iterations of Migrating to Access 2003. What I am after is some end user feedback on whether things like smart tags are worth the effort. Is there a magic option hidden away 10 screens deep in the options that MS mention in 1 article thats impossible to find!?

I know I can just open up my databases in 03. Already been there, bought the TShirt. From what I have found so far - it does not seem like MS have added a lot to Access in 5 years!

Regards Tim

 

[ZmrAbdulla]

What I (I am not advanced user) found in Access 2003 is .. If you use it with WinXP you will be able to get the system styles to the command buttons & Tabcontrols etc..

there are some advanced properties & functions that a normal user won't be using.

A very bad help file...comparing to Access2000/2002

Irritating security dialog that pops up..

________________________________________________________
Zameer Abdulla
Help to find Missing people
Do not cut down the tree that gives you shade.

 

[THWatson]

Tim
You are right - not a lot has been added to Access in 5 years. For the greatest part, Access 2003 is a minor upgrade. I think the tip-off is that the default file system is Access 2000.

There are a couple of neat (but not overwhelmingly compelling) new features. As Zameer suggests, there are some advanced properties etc. that the normal user won't be using.

About a year ago, I installed Office 2003 on my laptop. After using it for a couple of months, I uninstalled it and went back to 2000. The principle reason was too many sudden and inexplicable crashes from which there was no recovery. Once it crashed the database was toast. There is supposed to be a built-in recovery system, but it didn't work for me.

Now, to be fair, the release of Service Pack 1 for Office 2003 solved some (maybe all) of those problems. And now I see there is a Service Pack 2. So the product may be a lot more stable now.

As far as bringing in Access 2000 files, there were only a couple of minor things that needed tweaking. One was the HasData property to check for empty subreports. Can't remember what the other was, but it wasn't a biggie.

The "Security pop-up" to which Zameer refers is irritating, but it can be dealt with. There's a work-around for it.

As I recall, what makes the Help file annoying is that it's an online Help file.

Since the release of the Service Packs, I have been tempted to try Office 2003 again, but haven't taken the plunge yet. I always up to trying something new but so far I have leaned to "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Tom

 

[Blackshark]

Thanks Zameer and Tom.

The security pop sounds like fun. I have searched a bit on that. Cheers for the feedback. I have upgraded to SP2 but thinking about it, I bet the company will start off with vanilla 03!!!

Regards Tim

 

[ZmrAbdulla]

The "Security pop-up" to which Zameer refers is irritating, but it can be dealt with. There's a work-around for it.

There are workarounds for many problems or requirements. But an ordinary user won't be attempting for those.

________________________________________________________
Zameer Abdulla
Help to find Missing people
Do not cut down the tree that gives you shade.

 

[THWatson]

Zameer
Do you use 2003? Given a choice, which would you use - 2003 or 2000?

Today, I corresponded with a friend whose plant switched to 2003 earlier this year. He says that everything is running okay, but they do everything in the default file mode, which is 2000, so he doesn't really notice much of a difference.

Tom

 

[ZmrAbdulla]

In my office there are machines loaded with 97, 2000, 2002 & 2003. So I have a chance to work with all of them. (My IT dept is not supporting Access due to couple of reasons.)
As I said for normal users don't see any difference between 2002 & 2003.(He will notice some difference only in the interface when he use it with winxp with "apply system theme to controls" option checked.)

I think network dbs are more stable with 2003. I don't have any..
I prefer to work on 2002.

Upgrading is not creating any problem but downgrading gives many errors. mostly DAO/ADO problems.



________________________________________________________
Zameer Abdulla
Help to find Missing people
Do not cut down the tree that gives you shade.

 

[jsteph]

Just 2 cents...In our shop, we have a huge number of legacy Access apps that were done in A97. The work involved in porting them to a newer version is far greater than any benefit from percieved or real features in newer versions.

So we image Access97 on all of our new PC's, and there is little if anything that we miss by not having the 'latest greatest'. Any new projects that call for Access are done in '97, though most new stuff of any importance will be done as intranet web apps or VB, using sql-server backend.
--Jim

 

[THWatson]

Thanks for all the input. A helpful conversation.

Wonder what the next version of Office will bring? I keep reading more about it.

Tom

 

[ZmrAbdulla]

Seen pictures of Access2005 really nice..
Dhookom was saying new office version will be added with printing to pdf.

________________________________________________________
Zameer Abdulla
Help to find Missing people
Do not cut down the tree that gives you shade.

 

[THWatson]

Zameer
Yep, I have seen the same stuff.

It looks as if Office 12 will be a substantial overhaul of the product, but more of it might relate to the components of Office other than Access. It will be interesting to find out what they do with Access, and especially VBA - this is where it could get tricky.

Tom

 

[ZmrAbdulla]

I am afraid.. one day MS will say no more VBA only .NET.....


________________________________________________________
Zameer Abdulla
Help to find Missing people
Do not cut down the tree that gives you shade.

 

[THWatson]

Zameer
That's what I was referring to. I'm also afraid.

Tom

 

[evalesthy]

Someone else at tek-tips had posted this interesting link in another discussion. I apologize for forgetting source.

http://blogs.msdn.com/access/archive/2005/10/13/480870.aspx

 

[PHV]

thread1121-1137229

 

[THWatson]

I sent a front end/back end, Access 2000, database to a friend to check out in Access 2003.

He ran into a number of problems, including some forms not being able to be opened. In due course, Acccess shut down due to "memory issues." And his system has Service Pack 1 for Office 2003 installed.

All the stuff in the database I sent to him was normal, and worked perfectly in Access 2000.

This is the kind of thing that has kept me from trying Access 2003 again, after installing and then uninstalling the first time.

Tom

 

[THWatson]

Since Microsoft has now issued two Service Packs for Office 2003, I decided to try, once again, to install the 2003 version of Office and see what happened.

WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT!

The problems are exactly the same as I originally encountered. Databases that work perfectly well in Access 2000 suddenly crash in Access 2003. And that's not the worst part...the worst part is that the database is toast once it crashes. It doesn't matter how many times it goes through its backup and restore feature, it's finished.

There may well be some piece of code somewhere that causes this, but I have no idea where to find it. The problem seems to occur when you try either to open a form or run a report from a report menu.

Whereas I can understand a program crashing, I cannot understand a product utterly corrupting a database and making it unusable.

Tom

 

[danvlas]

I myself like Access 2003 better than 2000 (which was extremely unstable on my machine) or XP (just a little improvement from 2000).

The new 2003 property that I love best is .Recordset for combo/listboxes.

What I hate about 2003 is that plain I/O operations on files do NOT work any longer - and I really can't say why.

Open "C:\Testfile.txt" For Output As #1 raises an error: Bad file mode (???)

Same with Shell - nothing seems to make it work, but no error this time. Same machine, same application in Access 97/2K/XP work fine with these things.

Not to mention late binding, which is gone...no matter what I do, the objects do not get instantiated.

Wizards do not do their job at all, but I gave them up in Access 2000 when they crashed a few applications I made.


I have never had a database crash in 2003, but I'm not contradicting what happened to Tom - classic MS stuff. Maybe I haven't had that problem mainly because I only made a few Jet databases in Acc 2003. For the rest, I'm using Access as a SQL Server client - adp.

After a second thought, I wonder why I like it better than previous versions...





Daniel Vlas
Systems Consultant

http://www.geocities.com/danvlas/AutoMail.html