Customer Reviews

Microsoft Access 2007 Version Upgrade [Old Version]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This was exactly what I needed. I used it to upgrade my Office, Home and Student, to include Access. It was a seemless install. I ordered two, my wife installed it on her computor also. Access is much better than Excel at separating information and organizing it into useful data. It is also harder to use, but it comes with some good templates and training aids to make it easier.

Microsoft has made quite a few changes under the hood in this version of Access. Access databases developed in previous versions don't always move forward to this version problem-free. We've had to change some existing Access/VB code to get all features working in some existing databases. While the menus and look & feel match the rest of Office 2007, they do represent a departure from previous version of Access, and take some getting used to!

This is another great upgrade from microsoft. Installed over old Access (2002) with no problem. If you need a tutorial the best I have found is Thomson Course Technology New Perspectives Microsoft Office 2007 Comprehensive a truly great tutorial.

This product is much more powerful than my prior version of Access (1997) and is easier to do advanced things. I have been very satisfied.

Exactly what I ordered. Installed easy and in no time over an existing Office 2007 installation.

I wasn't sure about buying access by itself, especially because this is an upgrade. It works with any office suite, MS Works and some other Microsoft software.

Install was a breeze. Seems to work if you have any Microsoft products already installed on your PC.

I purchased MS Access 2007 to go with the MS Office standard 2007. Because of a sale price, the combo was cheaper than buying Office professional. Like the rest of 2007, Access gets the tool bar/pull down menu makeover. I have read gripes about items being in different locations, but I chalk this up to learning curve.

There are significant improvements. The main window provides a tabbed work area where all open objects reside, helping to keep the development area tidy. Taking us back to Access 2000 (Office 2000 Pro), it includes much better pre-built applications that you can modify or adapt to suit your needs and it does a much better job of providing context-specific options than 2003. The new Navigation Pane provides a comprehensive view of tables, forms, queries and reports compared to the old way of bringing up various windows to access both data as well as reports.

The new file format, like previous upgrades to Access is not compatible for users of the older version. You either have to save as to share a file with someone running Office 2003 or they can't open it unless they have the compatibility pack installed on their computer. Since this is the way Access has done upgrades for years, this should not be a surprise.

The more vexing problem is the upgraded tool bar/pull down menu format. I used highly modified tool bars to increase my productivity and efficiency. I seldom use pull down menus. The new hybrid system is much better for the person who never modified a tool bar out of the box and now gives quicker access (no pun intended) to items they would normally have to use a pull down menu to get at. Because the average user probably didn't use highly modified tool bars, the overall redesign of Access is probably a great step forward. For people like me, I gripe about the large amount of real estate lost in the vertical for using the new format. You can go to a slimmed down version of the tool bar, but then you are back to pull down menus, not a step forward for me. Also you have the option of a single tool bar that you can modify, but you are limited to one tool bar and it can only be placed horizontally in the upper portion of the monitor.

I am much less sanguine about the changes to the rest of Office. I ended up uninstalling Office 2007 standard, just because the whole tool bar issue was so painful to work through. A good compromise for heavy users of Access may be to upgrade just Access and leave the rest of Office in the 2003 version. A vote against Office 2007, but a vote for Access 2007.

My main concern was with a 150+MB Access97 .mdb database file and the software I've written for it in VB6. The upgrade could not have gone any easier:

- No problems with the update installation. (Oddly, Access97 is not a valid upgrade path. You must have some of the other software listed, such as Access2000-2003 or Office 2006.)

- Very quick and easy loading/conversion of the old database (just took seconds to do).

- All my old tables look just the same. Not sure what people are saying they have to "get used to" in the new version.

- In VB6 (Tools: References menu), I just deselected "DAO 3.6" and selected "MS Office 12 access database engine object library" and "MS Office 12 object library" and in my software, changed the database filename extension from .mdb to .accdb, and the software ran fine with no other changes.

Having trouble loading data from 2002 version of Access to 2007. New version more complicated and not as easy to enter and retrieve data. Hopefully, I will eventually learn to navigate it.