Access 2007 file extensions

In common with the rest of Office 2007, Access has gained new file formats:

accdb

This is the database itself, the replacement for the old mdb extension. Unfortunately, the accdb files seems to be between 30% and 200% larger than the equivalent mdb was.

accde

The equivalent to the mde extension in earlier versions. An accde file can be opened by Access 2007 but the user cannot switch any of the components into development mode. None of the VBA code within the database exists as readable source code, it is all compiled so the accde file should be smaller than the original accdb.

accdt

An Access Database Template, new to Access 2007.

accdr

Another new concept. If you change the extension of an accdb database file to accdr then users will not be able to view the design of any database components. Unlike the accde above, the file is exactly the same as the original accdb and a user can gain access to the design by simply changing the file extension back to accdb.

laccdb

The equivalent to the ldb file in earlier versions of Access. It records which users are working on which records in the database.

Note that Access 2007 will use the older ldb file format if it is used to open an mdb-format database. This enables it to share data in situations where some users are still running older versions of Access.