Programming Microsoft Access 2000 (Microsoft Programming Series)

Chapter 14

The Microsoft Office 2000 Developer Edition (ODE) provides many important features for Microsoft Access development, including versatile setup and deployment options. ODE originally shipped with Office 97 as an outgrowth of the Access SDK. Longtime Access developers will recognize ODE as a vehicle for getting the Access run-time engine and the Setup wizard. ODE has since come a long way. Selected features that are new or greatly improved include

• A run-time version of the Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE)
• A Package And Deployment wizard
• Tools to facilitate data binding to Microsoft Forms used with the other Office applications (instead of Access Forms)
• The Code Librarian, for storing and retrieving code snippets and whole procedures
• Full-scale printed and electronic documentation for Office 2000 development

This chapter offers a brief overview of the ODE feature set and explores topics of interest to Access developers (and developers generally, in the case of digital signing).