Presentation outlining the Windows 7 and Office 2010 functionality ecosystem, the migration challenges facing organizations and the focus areas in migration project management.
Object Model ChangesNew Object Models may cause compatibility issues which manifest themselves as Compilation or Run-Time errors DAO to ADO Active X D O. DAO - Data Access Objects original v1 in 1992, version 3.5 in office 97 did not require JET engine, latest/last version 3.6 in office XP, 2003, 2007 Data Access Object (DAO) is an object that provides an abstract interface to some type of database or persistence mechanism, providing some specific operations without exposing details of the database. This isolation separates the concerns of what data accesses the application needs, in terms of domain-specific objects and data types (the public interface of the DAO), and how these needs can be satisfied with a specific DBMS, database schema, etc. (the implementation of the DAO).Hidden commands“Hidden Commands” over 300 may still compile but cause runtime errors or no longer execute the same way, or at all. Newly dysfunctional commands may exist circumstantially. These commands may include “ChartObjects.Delete” or “Dialog.Show” and may not run so use of these commands, among others, must be identified and assessed for compatibility implications.Discontinued Support for VBA Syntax deprecated CommandsCertain command series such as “Diagram” are no longer supported by MS Word or their associated Office applications, and if used will result in compilation errors.Deprecated commands are no longer supported. Although they still compile and execute, use of such commands does not represent Microsoft “best practice” and they should be identified and re-evaluated.Unsupported Project ReferencesUse of certain project references, such as Utility.mda (add in) in MS Access will cause compilation errors and they need to be removed and possibly replaced.Changed Application Functionality File links will break as a result of the file name extension change from 3, to 4 or 5 character extensions in Office 2007 so finding the links and replacing them with the new file name extensions is be important to re-establish file link functionality.New “Invalid Range Names” have been introduced as a result of the greater number of rows and columns allowed by Excel 2007. 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns, in 2003 – 256 Cols x 65,536 rows. A range name of “QTR1” for example is now an invalid range name. Potential formatting problems introduced as a result of the Excel default font change from Arial 10 to Calibri 11, meaning column widths may need to be adjusted in templates or other Excel documents. Changed File & Object Security MethodsMS Access Workgroup Security is not supported in Access 2007 so security for Access files will need to be evaluated and re-established using network and folder based security methods. For Access 2007, the Microsoft development team wanted to make Access easier to use. They decided that the internal security system used in Access since the early 1990s made the software unnecessarily complex. Therefore, they deprecated the internal security system in both the ACCDB file format and the new version of the Access Database Engine that accompanies it.