When to convert from Access 97 or earlier to Access 2000 or Access 2002 file formatWhether you should convert or enable a Microsoft Access file depends on which versions of Access users have upgraded to.
When to convert from Access 97 or earlier to Access 2000 or Access 2002 file format
In most cases, you'll want to convert a previous-version Microsoft Access database to Access 2000 file format if all users have upgraded to Access 2000 or later, and you'll want to convert to Access 2002 file format if all users have upgraded to Access 2002. In Access 2002, you can modify data and make design changes to an Access 2000 file. Although you can also enable an Access 97 or earlier database in Access 2002 without converting it, you can change the design of objects only in the previous version.
Once you've converted an Access database to Microsoft Access 2000 or Access 2002 file format, you can't open it in the previous version of Access. You can convert an Access 2000 database back to Access 97. However, you can't convert an Access 2000 database back to Access version 2.0 or 95.
If your Access database is a multiuser (shared) database, and all users can't upgrade to Microsoft Access 2000 or later at the same time, you can split the database so that it is a front-end/back-end application. You can then have different versions of the front end connected to the back end, which remains unaltered. Users of Access 2000 or later can use a converted version of the front end, where they can take advantage of new features.
When to convert an Access 2000 file to Access 2002 file format
If you want to save the Access file as an MDE or ADE in Access 2002, you must convert the file to Access 2002 file format. Otherwise, you don't necessarily need to convert a Microsoft Access 2000 file to the Access 2002 file format. If you're converting Access databases from Access 97 or earlier, it's recommended that you convert to Access 2000 file format first. Users of Access 2000 can open these Access files, and new Access 2002 features are available when you use an Access 2000 file in Access 2002. Once you've converted an Access file to Access 2002 file format, you can't open the file in Access 2000. However, you can convert an Access 2002 file back to Access 2000.
Convert to Access 2002 file format only if all users have upgraded to Access 2002, and you have been successfully using the file in Access 2000 file format. If all users have upgraded to Access 2002, you can develop an application in the Access 2002 file format without having to make sure that any object, method, property or function you use is also available in Access 2000.
The Access 2002 file format offers the following advantages:
When to open a previous-version Access database in Access 2002 without converting it
You may want to enable a Microsoft Access database in a multiuser environment where all users can't upgrade from Access 97 or earlier to Access 2002 at the same time. In this situation, a database must be used simultaneously with different versions of Microsoft Access, and users who have upgraded to Access 2002 can enable a database in a previous-version format.
When you're using Access 2002 to work with an enabled previous-version Access database, you can use objects in the database to view and modify data. However, you can't save changes to database objects. To modify the design of an object or create a new object in the Access database, you must either open it in the previous version or convert the database to Microsoft Access 2000 or Access 2002 file format.