Which version of Access for images

[Database Administrator]

I am going to have to start holding jpg files (about 6,000 - 10,000 a
year) in our school database. Mainly, they will end up being printed
as part of the children's profiles ie via a report. I understand that
Access 2007 can hold images without the associated bloat created by
previous versions. However, I am reasonably used to Access 2003 and
would only want to upgrade if there were significant advantages in the
way Access 2007 handles images. Because these images wil be an
important part of the profiles, I am happy to upgrade for them alone.
Maybe, however, Access 2007 doesn't handle jpegs well and the current
procedure of storing the file name and fetching the file when needed
would continue to be appropriate even if I did upgrade. Please could
you advise me?

Many thanks - Anthony

[Database Administrator]

Anthony, these factors may influence you decision:

a. Access 2007's compressed storage format does make a huge difference for
embedded images. If you want to embed, this is probably the only way to go.

b. Only use the compressed storage format if *all* computers will be running
A2007. Even if you use an MDB (not an ACCDB), previous versions will not be
able to display the graphics if you use the compressed image option.

c. An image control in Access 2007 has a control source. This makes it dead
simple to show images. You can even do it in a continuous form; previous
versions could not do that at all (without a 3rd party control.)

d. Unless these images are very small, low-grade images, it is probably
impractical to store them in an Access database, as it will quickly overflow
the 2GB file size. Do the math: say 10,000 images per year times 5 years
times the average file size in MB.

e. An alternative to embedding images in the database is to use a hyperlink
field to link to the image files. You can do this in any version of Access
released in the last 12 years.

f. Until we see Service Pack 1 for Office 2007, Access 2007 has too many
bugs for serious use IMHO:
http://allenbrowne.com/Access2007.html
By all means, develop it that way, but I would not deploy it until the SP is
released.

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia
Tips for Access users - http://allenbrowne.com/tips.html
Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

"anthony" wrote in message
news:97dcde93-5273-4251-82b1-aa6f8653fccb@p69g2000hsa.googlegroups.com...
>I am going to have to start holding jpg files (about 6,000 - 10,000 a
> year) in our school database. Mainly, they will end up being printed
> as part of the children's profiles ie via a report. I understand that
> Access 2007 can hold images without the associated bloat created by
> previous versions. However, I am reasonably used to Access 2003 and
> would only want to upgrade if there were significant advantages in the
> way Access 2007 handles images. Because these images wil be an
> important part of the profiles, I am happy to upgrade for them alone.
> Maybe, however, Access 2007 doesn't handle jpegs well and the current
> procedure of storing the file name and fetching the file when needed
> would continue to be appropriate even if I did upgrade. Please could
> you advise me?
>
> Many thanks - Anthony

[Database Administrator]

Thank you Allen. I apreciate your advice which has persuaded me to
stick with Access 2003 for the time being. Is
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/285820 the best way of
linking the filenames in a table to the actual images stored
elsewhere?

[Database Administrator]

That's the kind of thing.

Stephen Lebans has some good info about the graphcal side of Access here:
http://www.lebans.com/toc.htm
All sorts of goodies, including animated gifs, JPG files in the runtime
Access, and so on.

This may be useful too:
http://www.mvps.org/access/forms/frm0030.htm

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia
Tips for Access users - http://allenbrowne.com/tips.html
Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

"anthony" wrote in message
news:7a409f55-0a5c-4fd6-b59e-856d9e4c415b@l1g2000hsa.googlegroups.com...
> Thank you Allen. I apreciate your advice which has persuaded me to
> stick with Access 2003 for the time being. Is
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/285820 the best way of
> linking the filenames in a table to the actual images stored
> elsewhere?
>
>