Compile Access 2000

All you have to do is save it as a .MDE file.

Ralph

Microsoft office Developer's Edition comes with the required software that creates the distribution packages for office programs. You can create the setup file and it will install your ms access application on users computers even if they dont have ms office installed.

If you dont have the developer edition you can use the software factory that creates the setup programs, however you will have to manually add the required ms office libraries to this program.

Your best option will be to get the ms office developer edition with all the tools for developers to package and distribute their developed programs.

if all above fails you can simply distribute the mde file and it will run on users computers provided they have ms access installed on their machines.

This is not a simple exercise..

First, you must realise that an Access Database is not a program. One way to look at it is to think of it as a (very) glorified Excel spreadsheet with a whole lot of macros. The only way a user can use that spreadsheet is if they have Excel intalled, and if you have used some of the Excel addins they have to have them installed as well.

So, to distribute your app effectively you must ensure that Access is installed on the users PCs. Luckily (?) there is also a thing called Access Runtime that can be installed on a PC so the entire Access system is not required. This is avaliable, as others have said in the Office Developer Edition, but not in the other Office editions.

Now in actual fact the runtime library is not equivalent to running an Acceess DB under the full Office Access system - certain things dont exist in the runtime and so if your db uses them they will not work on runtime installed PCs. The M$ knowledgebase has several articles on the limitations of the runtime, search under the string "runtime differences" to find them.

Thirldy, Access is very, extremely, totally version dependant. So your users need to have the same version of Access ( or the runtime ) installed as you developed in. This is extreme fun! Whatever you do, dont clobber the users latest Office install with prior versions of any dll or other component. There are ways to run multi-versions of Access and its shared Office components but they are not for the beginner.

Access distribution is so complex that Access developers of 10 years standing still have problems. One place they are discussed frequently is on the AccessD mailing list. You can subscribe to this list at www.databaseadvisors.com

Good luck with your app, and welcome to the world of professional Access developers.