front end distribution to user desktop (97)

[arage]

front end distribution to user desktop
I

[charlotte]

Do you have the Developer's Edition of Office? Otherwise, you won't be able to make this work reliably. If you create a setup package using the Setup Wizard (unless you're fortunate enough to have something like InstallShield Express, which is much easier to use), you can create a diskette or CD or even a network setup that will install the front end on the local workstations with the appropriate files, links, etc.

There are two things to watch out for with that. One is that the documentation for the setup wizard is terrible. The other is that unless your mappings are all the same, you'll need to include code in your database to allow the user to specify the back end location the first time they run the database and to relink all the tables before they try to do anything else.

[Douglas Martin]

You can just use a single copy of the workgroup file (living on the server). That works fine for me.

As to distributing the front-end, if all your users have their network shares and drive letters set up the same way (which I recognize may not be the case, but if it is, it's handy), then you shouldn't have any problem just setting up the links for them before giving them a copy of the front-end.

As to the SHIFT key business, look up AllowBypassKey in the builtin help.

[Stewart]

use UNC paths to prevent the problems with drive mappings.

[arage]

no, I don

[JimDettman]

It's not clear from you question if your remote users already have Access installed or not. You only need the ODE if the users your distributing to don't already have Access installed. Otherwise, they just need a copy of the MDB file and any supporting files.

Jim.

[arage]

ODE?

[JimDettman]

ODE - Office Developers Edition - You only need it if the folks your distributing to don't already have a copy of Access installed.

Jim.