Excel making Access Read-Only?

[HWhite]

I have a need to create a secure way for somebody to access entries in a
database that only apply to that person. I did not create the database.
There is a query in the DB that will work. This person is not an employee,
it is an outside person. So security is pretty important. I wanted the most
basic and most simple solution possible.

I thought the best way would be to simply create a linked spreadsheet that
displays the results of the query. It works fine. The problem is that when
the spreadsheet is open, the database becomes read-only. Is that normal?
That seems odd to me. Only thing I can think of is that the link is not
read-only, but is instead read-write and has a lock on the DB so the
spreadsheet can update the DB. But that's not what I want and there weren't
any options like that when creating the link.

Any suggestions on why this is happening or a different solution? In the
end I may just make a secured DB with links to the original DB, but I really
didn't want to get into that.

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

What specifically makes you think the database is read-only? A linke
spreadsheet is definitely read-only, but that shouldn't affect anything else
in your database.

 

[HWhite]

To both Doug and Chris, when the spreadsheet is open, people who try to open
the DB get the read-only message. When the spreadsheet is closed, they do
not.

Chris, I would like to explore the SQL Express solution. Can you point me
to some instructions as I haven't done that before?

Thanks.

 

[HWhite]

Thank you very much Chris. I hope the how-to is in there somewhere because I
need a solution quick.

 

[Howard Burgman]

Thank you very much Chris. I hope the how-to is in there somewhere
because I
need a solution quick.