Access 2003 VBA Programmer's Reference

Appendix A. Upgrading to Access 2003

With all of the exciting new features, controls, and interfaces, there is no doubt that anyone starting fresh should use Access 2003. But, what about those of us with older applications? What should people do if they have to deal with mixed environments where there are applications developed using various versions of Access? And, we can sense the trepidation of developers who are faced with having multiple versions of Access sharing the same database in a networked environment. If you have applications that were created in previous formats, you will need to decide whether to convert or to enable.

This appendix highlights some of the key factors that need to be considered in making those decisions. And, of course, it also provides some steps that you may want to follow, as well as a couple of cautions, before starting any conversion process. We will address special circumstances, such as dealing with MDWs and replication, and also touch on some of the issues faced when converting from 2003 to an earlier format.

Although this appendix discusses converting an application into multiple versions of Access, it does not cover working with multiple versions of Access on the same computer.