Once you have your Access object finished to perfection and you are ready to let the masses use your creation, you will need to ensure that when it is opened, it will not run in Design mode. You want your application to open in Runtime mode so that users will be prevented from modifying or accidentally deleting objects that you have made available to them in the Startup form.
After specifying the Startup, you will need to change the MS Access 2007 database filename extension so that it will open in runtime mode.
To ensure that your mdatabase opens in runtime mode, follow the steps below:
- Open the database.
- Click the Office button.
- Click the Access Options button.
- Click Current Database on the left side of the window.
- Under Application Options, click the drop-down arrow of the Display Form text box.
- Select the name of the form you want to be your Startup form for your application.
- Click OK.
- Click the Office button.
- Click Close Database.
- Use Windows Explorer to navigate to the database icon.
- Right-click the icon and select Rename.
- Type the name of your database and press Enter.
The steps above will create a locked-down version of your MS Access 2007 database.
To open the database in runtime mode:
- Double-click its icon in Windows Explorer
- Open it using a shortcut on the desktop
- Use the /runtime command-line switch.
To open the file again in Access in design mode, you need to rename it with an .accdb filename extension.