Keep users from getting into the raw data files

[boywonder]

I'm using Access 2003 and I need to know is there a way to keep users from accessing the raw data file. I want them to enter info from the front-end app, but do not want them to go in the front-end or the back-end mdb data files.



The reason, I see data being changed and I know the only way it can be changed is from the raw data file, not within the application forms.

[boywonder]

Is there a way to password protect the files to view the background objects.

[rpeare]

How sophisticated are your users? And how are you using your database, is it strictly to look things up and nobody's doing data entry on it?

If someone has a full version of access there are very few things you can do to limit what they do, but if they are not sophisticated there are a few things you can try. The first thing is to hide all of your tables unless they know how to unhide them it's a pretty easy stop from the casual users. If that won't work it depends on how much effort you want to put into this.

You can export the main data to a file (delimited text file for example) and link that data back to your user's front end. If you do it this way nobody will be able to change anything even if they open the table but it's a clumsy solution if you want to do data entry in the database at all.

The only foolproof way I know of to prevent people from editing anything about a database is to uninstall Access on their computer and only give them the run time-components but that may be an impracticality for you.