Office Developer and Access

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I've been using Access for about two years (self taught
and still learning) and I have to say that I love it.
What started as a quick solution to organize some
documents quickly went to a whole Solution that tracks
and manage projects, proposals, PO, Invoices, Employees,
Company Info and a lot more. It is the system used at
the office and I'm proud of my achievement and I thank
all the people in here that had helped me attain it.
What started as a mere curiosity is now one of my
passions and I want it to explore it to newer levels.
That brings me to the subject of this post. I've read of
the Microsoft Office Developer as if it were a different
Office Suite, one that is composed of the Office
Professional + Frontpage and some "extra" developer tools
used for deployment, help capabilities, etc. I use XP
Professional with Publisher (I also have Frontpage) both
at home and at the office. I have started connecting
Access to other Office applications (Word and Outlook) to
create better reports and improve management of our
clients. I started running into some problems because
some computers have Office 2000 and all my references are
for Office XP. So I turned to look for the Developer
suite (to use something like a deployment wizard that
will include references to previous applications or
include it with my application at deployment time) but
what I think is that there is no such thing (Microsoft
Shop doesnt have it) and all I need is really part of the
XP suite I already have and that there are some add-ons
that can be downloaded from Microsoft (still checking on
that one). Can someone provide me with some information
on the matter?
 
The develper's kits don't fix broken references, nor can they include
references (paths to files) that don't exist on your machine. Have a look at
this free add-in on the Access Web which may help with your references
problem:

http://www.mvps.org/access/modules/mdl0022.htm

Also have a look at Doug Steele's references page:

http://members.rogers.com/douglas.j.steele/AccessReferenceErrors.html
--
Arvin Meyer, MCP, MVP
Microsoft Access
Free Access downloads:
http://www.datastrat.com
http://www.mvps.org/access

I've been using Access for about two years (self taught
and still learning) and I have to say that I love it.
What started as a quick solution to organize some
documents quickly went to a whole Solution that tracks
and manage projects, proposals, PO, Invoices, Employees,
Company Info and a lot more. It is the system used at
the office and I'm proud of my achievement and I thank
all the people in here that had helped me attain it.
What started as a mere curiosity is now one of my
passions and I want it to explore it to newer levels.
That brings me to the subject of this post. I've read of
the Microsoft Office Developer as if it were a different
Office Suite, one that is composed of the Office
Professional + Frontpage and some "extra" developer tools
used for deployment, help capabilities, etc. I use XP
Professional with Publisher (I also have Frontpage) both
at home and at the office. I have started connecting
Access to other Office applications (Word and Outlook) to
create better reports and improve management of our
clients. I started running into some problems because
some computers have Office 2000 and all my references are
for Office XP. So I turned to look for the Developer
suite (to use something like a deployment wizard that
will include references to previous applications or
include it with my application at deployment time) but
what I think is that there is no such thing (Microsoft
Shop doesnt have it) and all I need is really part of the
XP suite I already have and that there are some add-ons
that can be downloaded from Microsoft (still checking on
that one). Can someone provide me with some information
on the matter?
 
Hi,

Since some user computers use Office XP, while other use Office 2000, you
can use Late Bound object creation instead of Early Bound.
Also, you should remove all references to Office applications in your
reference dialog.

Since early bound helps you with intellisense, you might not want to work
without. For this, try the following approach:

1. While developing application, set the reference to the Office XP
applications you want to use (Outlook XP, Excel XP, Word XP)
2. When you declare an object variable oas referebce to Excel XP, for
example, do it as usuall

dim oExcel as Excel.Application

3. Do not create variables with NEW keyword (since it uses early bound
mechanism), but create them with CreateObject. Also, do not use object
library version number

E.g.

Instead of using

set oExcel = new Excel.Application

use

set oExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")

And do not use

set oExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application.9") or
set oExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application.10") or

but use it without version number (as shown above)

4. Stick with the properties and methods from the older possible version
(Office 2k in this case). This is required anyway if some users will have
Office 2000 for sure.

5. Compile the while app before deploying it (to catch any possible
misstyping)

6. Before you deploy, change the variable type from Office app type (e.g.
Excel.Application) to Object

e.g.
replace

dim oExcel as Excel.Application

with

dim oExcel as Object

7. Remove references from Excel and other Office XP applications

As a last advice.

One last tip: before proceeding with step 6 and 7, make a backup copy of the
MDB. So, when you need to make new code changes, you don't need to set the
references again and replace OBJECT type back to real object class, in order
to get access to Intellisense.

Late bound is a little slower then early bound (since it has to find the
refernce for the object at runtime, instead hard-coding it into the app at
compile time), but unless you create hundreed of instances of Excel or Word
in a loop, you won't see any difference.

HTH
Bogdan

_______________________________






I've been using Access for about two years (self taught
and still learning) and I have to say that I love it.
What started as a quick solution to organize some
documents quickly went to a whole Solution that tracks
and manage projects, proposals, PO, Invoices, Employees,
Company Info and a lot more. It is the system used at
the office and I'm proud of my achievement and I thank
all the people in here that had helped me attain it.
What started as a mere curiosity is now one of my
passions and I want it to explore it to newer levels.
That brings me to the subject of this post. I've read of
the Microsoft Office Developer as if it were a different
Office Suite, one that is composed of the Office
Professional + Frontpage and some "extra" developer tools
used for deployment, help capabilities, etc. I use XP
Professional with Publisher (I also have Frontpage) both
at home and at the office. I have started connecting
Access to other Office applications (Word and Outlook) to
create better reports and improve management of our
clients. I started running into some problems because
some computers have Office 2000 and all my references are
for Office XP. So I turned to look for the Developer
suite (to use something like a deployment wizard that
will include references to previous applications or
include it with my application at deployment time) but
what I think is that there is no such thing (Microsoft
Shop doesnt have it) and all I need is really part of the
XP suite I already have and that there are some add-ons
that can be downloaded from Microsoft (still checking on
that one). Can someone provide me with some information
on the matter?
 
Hi:
Thank you. My code is as you have said except for the instructions on Step
6 and 7 and now all the computers that use Access in the office have Office
XP installed on them. There is just one question unanswered, is there a
Developers suite, kit, etc.?
 
Yes, there is an Office XP Developer Edition, but if all the computers to
which you want to distribute the database have Office XP, including Access
2002, installed, you don't need it -- you can just give the user a copy of
the database and access to the workgroup (security) file.

Because Office 2003 has been released, you may not be able to purchase the
Office XP Developer Edition directly from Microsoft. You'll likely still
find copies in local stores, at online software vendors, and on the online
auction sites.

For Office 2003, there is no Office Developer Edition, but the runtime comes
with "Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Office System 2003", a separate
package.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP
 
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