Snapshot Viewer for Office 2007

[JudyJones]

We frequently use the snapshot viewer capability. After installing Office 2007 I was unable to open a snapshot file. I went into the Control Panel to Add or Remove Programs to see if I had failed to select that option when installing 2007 but could not find it listed. I went searching and found the executable file and finally got it installed but unless my mind is playing tricks, it use to be included as an option in previous versions of Microsoft Office installation, did it not?

[HansV]

According to A report does not open in Snapshot Viewer after you export the report to snapshot format in Access 2007, "Snapshot Viewer is not included with Access 2007 as it was in earlier versions of Microsoft Access". It is available as a free download.

[JudyJones]

Thanks for the reply. It seems strange that they would build in the capability to create a snapshot file and then leave out the viewer capability.

[Wendell]

I think Microsoft has finally come to the realization that proprietary formats for rendering printed documents are not a good idea. The snapshot format is no longer supported in Access 2010 - largely because they now support both PDF and XML formatted documents. So from a long-range planning perspective you will want to start thinking about phasing out the snapshot format.

[JudyJones]

The problem is when you are part of a large organization, not everyone gets updated to the newer version of Office at the same time. Many of our users are still using Office 2000 or 2002. Once the time comes that everyone is using Office 2007 or 2010 we can begin using PDF formatted documents.

[Wendell]

That is a challenge. The real issue is who needs to create the snapshot reports - once one of them upgrades to 2010 that capability is gone.

[JudyJones]

Thanks for letting me know. At least by knowing this ahead of time we will be leary of upgrading anyone who needs this capability to version 2010 until a solution to this problem has been resolved.