File Compatability (Office XP - Office 2K)

[c_dewitt]

Does anyone know what the file compatability is between Access used in Office 2K and Office XP? I have people on new and older machines with these two versions of Office that need to trade files.

(Also, how about the rest of the Office Suite?)

Thanks

[MarkLiquorman]

By default, Access2002 uses Access2000 database format, so you can read/write into the same database from both Access2000 and 2002. Of course, if your database uses newer Access2002 features, an Access2000 user won't be able to use them (I don't know what would happen, an error of some sort I guess). Access2002 can also write databases with its own Access2002 format, which of course an Access2000 database can't read. I believe the other parts of OfficeXP are also compatible.

[WendellB]

Mark's comments are correct, but one caution is in order. Be sure you do development work on database objects in Access 2000. I've had at least three separate instances where an Access 2000 database developed on Access 2002 refused to work correctly on some Access 2000 workstations. Importing all objects into an Access 2000 PC in a new database seemed to solve most of the problems, but in one case I had to actually convert the database to Access97 and then back to Access 2000 to get it to behave. That said, I have been developing in 2002 for over a year now, and 2002 seems quite stable. Hope this is useful.

[MarkLiquorman]

>>, but one caution is in order. <<

That's good to know. I haven't used Access2002 directly. I have a client who has it, however, and I maintain the database (in Access2000) on my machine. I then export any changed objects to an Update database and xmit to client. He opens the UPdate database which copies the changed/new objects into his copy of master database (deleting prior version of objects as necessary). So far this has worked without incident. His master database is in Access2000 format, but I suppose I could use this same method to update his database even if it was in Access2002 format.