Thread: Updating Front Ends

I am about to expose just how much I don't know Access, Please hold your applause until the end.

My department has a split database the it has used for about 5 years. The back end (the raw data) is very understandable and has no security associated with it. The front end is composed of menus and forms that pop up on the desktop, not within an Access branded window.

The person who set it all up is now long gone and unavailable. There is a psuedo Password screen when the frontend is opened, but I think it is just a normal form and only meant to prevent casual tampering. I do not believe that there is any real security on the frontend File, as the backend is wide open and even contains an unsecured table with everyones username and password for the startup password form.

So here's the thing. We need to change the filepath of the backend tables. The Frontend flops when we do so, and I haven't figured out how to get design access to the Frontend. If I open the frontend from within Access, the Access window and all it's menus disappear.

Anyone know how to get me into design mode? or is this really a security issue? How can I tell?

Thanks in advance, you may snicker quietly to yourselves.

Try holding down the Shift key when starting the front end.

Cheers,

You know, sometimes I could just chuck this thing right out of the window.

Shift worked, of course. I'd tried Ctrl-Shift, Alt-Shift, and even just Shift, but I've only just realized that I only held them down while opening the File menu, not during actual load of the file.

Thanks for the quick answer.
-Kestrel