Office XP-worth buying????

[Toby1kenobe]

I'm going to have to buy a copy of access and I'm considering Office XP and upgrading to Windows XP.
One of the main selling points for me is the 'Package and Deploy'. Has anyone any opinions on this? It sounds like it will create a stand alone application from my DB. Is this correct, sounds to good to be true. Otherwise I'll end up writing completly in VB.

Thanks
Toby

 

[AnotherGraham]

I have found it to be good much better than Access 97. I have not yet deployed it but intend to do so. I am not however an expert. I would not use an earlier version. The ability to split it and distribute it over a network, and to change it to an SQL server format is also appealing. I have been running it on Windows ME which has been a pain.. I think ME is the problem as it causes problems with many programs including Explorer. I am planning to switch to Windows 2000. It has useful wizards which really make it a pleasure to use especially the ability to set up SQL statements in combo boxes. etc
Another useful feature is web publishing.
The big defect so far is the total absence of any reference to Java and help with connections to it. I hope this helps.
graham

 

[Lightning]

Be aware that the "Package and Deploy" options you are seeking are only available in the Office Developer Edition, not the standard or Professional Editions.

Access XP includes a number of new features over Access 97, including the ability to create data access pages directly and a host of new form/control properties and events. It also includes the ability to convert backwards to save applications as Access 2000 or Access 97 formats.

As far as OS is concerned, I've been running Office XP on a Windows 98 system for over a year with no problems, so an upgrade to Windows XP is not a necessity to run Office Xp.

HTH
Lightning

 

[Toby1kenobe]

Thanks for the replies. I thought I'd need XP to run Office XP. I'm obviously just another sucker for the Bill Gates takes over the world plot.....

Toby

 

[Francescina]

Deploying applications with ACCESS is nearly as buggy in A-XP as in A2K. Have a look to the runtime-related articles in the ACCESS online Encyclopedia on

http://www.unsoftwareag.com.

Since my new computer was delivered with A-XP I use A-XP to develop the new applications but I stay with the A2K format.
For the deployment I still use the MDT-2000 toolkit instead of the PDW and I am very happy with this solution.

Maybe the deployment will work fine in Access 2003 or Access.Net? ;-))))