mde (Access 97) won't open on machine with Access 2000

[BofRossClan]

I sent a copy of my database to someone running Access 2000 on their computer. It was in mde format created with Access 97. They were not able to open the file. I sent them an mdb copy, and it opened fine. I am hoping to be sharing this database with others soon. Is this going to be a problem with different Access versions? I don't want to distribute my mdb file.

I have considered just distributing the run-time version, but folks with Access already on their computers don't need all those extra files, and I remember it messing up some of my settings, and it took me some digging to fix them.

 

[twinmill]

I don't think you can convert an MDE file from 97 to 2000. You should also be using Access2000 if you want to support both versions, then you can create MDE's for each version. If you just want to distribute the applications part of the database, I would split the database out in 97 (front end/back end MDB's), and create separate MDE files for the front end in 97 and 2000. The back end will work fine in 97.

If you maintain your 97 front end MDB, the downside would be that you have to import it into 2000 whenever you make changes in 97. Depending how you code, you may also run into compatiblity issues between versions. You should make sure it works ok in 2000, before converting it to an MDE.

If you are running Access Security, you will have to set up identical workgroups and users, and duplicate all the security settings.

 

[BofRossClan]

Yuck. You'd think Microsoft would have a tidier way of sharing versions.