At times you will want to limit access to your database or, at least, to some of the information in it. There are three methods for implementing security within Access:
- User and Group security can be used to control access to the objects (e.g., tables, queries, forms, reports) in an Access database. The administrator of the database can grant Permissions to individuals, to entire groups, or both, and Permissions can be for use of all or only some objects. This type of security is difficult to set up, requires considerable attention to maintain, and so is generally carried out by an expert.
- Roll Your Own security can be implemented without a database administrator. The approach relies on the use of forms to control which parts of the database people can access. This method, however, usually requires some Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) coding to manage, so it is generally done by developers rather than users.
- Database passwords can be used to control who can access the database. However, everyone will have the same password and unlimited permissions once inside.
This lesson addresses only database passwords because it is the only kind users generally use. To set the database password, while in the Database window:
- Choose Set Database Password from the Security submenu, located on the Tools menu. Once you have chosen this option you will see the following dialog:
To clear the database password choose Unset Database Password from the Security submenu, located on the Tools menu, type in the password one more time, then click OK.
In the next lesson we will use the Startup dialog options to customize the layout of your database and the functionality available to users.
