I am almost finished creating this Access 2007 database and will have to split it and load it onto a shared drive. My question is simple: should the split occur AFTER I have created and finished my switchboard menu of items?
It does not matter. Nevertheless, the sooner you split your database, it will make future development easier. The front-end is your programming interface, which would include your switchboard. The back-end is were your data will reside.
I am almost finished creating this Access 2007 database and will have to split it and load it onto a shared drive. My question is simple: should the split occur AFTER I have created and finished my switchboard menu of items?
I would split the database before you do anything else.
You will then need to put the back end on the network share and do a full test of the front end. Make sure to test with multiple users in the database at the same time. There are things that work different when the database is split. Something may not work at all.
Access developers that have a lot of experience with split database know the things to avoid and what you must add to be able to have the final database split. They are able to start their database not split and split it later. Even them there may be things that done that do not work well with then database is split. I get hired a lot to help people split database and get the performance back.