Accessing Database design mode

[luv2bike2]

There is an DB that was create well before my time at my job and I have very
little experience with Access and need some help here.

Access 2003, XP SP3.

The first issue:
I need to get into the Form Design page of this particular DB the 2 ways i
know how to get into the Form Design or any other design mode is
1) have the DB open and on the main page of the DB you can right click on an
open space and than choose Form Design and go about doing what you need to
do. However I can not do that in this one particular DB -- i right click in
an open area on the main page and nothing happens.

2 i minimize the main page of the one that i can get into the design mode i
can see the database design box that has the Objects (tables, queries, forms,
etc) on the left side and on the right side is where you can choose the forms
(frm_Reports, fr,_SelectDocument, etc.) but on the one that i can not right
click this box is not present and i can not get into the design mode.

3) if i click on Tools and database utilities and than click on Switchboard
Manager, i get a message saying that "The Switchboard Manager was unable to
find a valid switchboard in this database. Would you like to create one?"
Of course I don't want to mess anything up, especailly since the DB is
working for the people that go into it everyday. There are 2 users that only
need to go into it once in a while to do a search and when they do, they get

" ' \\....\....mdb' is not valid path. Make sure that the path name is
spelled correctly and that you are connected to the server on which the file
resides.

OK"

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[Steve]

Hold the Shift Key down when you open the database and you should have no
problem getting into design mode.

Steve
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Dan]

Also if security and management allows, create a backup and try your
alterations on the backup. If you break it, no big deal, the one in
production is still running. Never work on the one in production if you can
help it.

Good Luck

Dan

 

[luv2bike2]

Thanks for your suggestion. I was able to get to the design mode. Greatly
appreciated!
Robin

 

[luv2bike2]

Thank you ! I did make a backup copy of it and will work off of that one.

Robin

 

[luv2bike2]

I have a couple more questions/issues that could be related to each other:

I can log in to another computer as myself, open up the DB have the design
mode there (w/o holding down the shift key). i have compared the Workgroup
Administrator settings on both computers (one that is working correctly and
the one that is not) to make sure that the workgroup settings are the same
and they are.
What would be causing this issue? I am a novice in Access and i know bits
and pieces, there must be something else that i am not seeing. Also the
drive mappings are identical on both computers. The comparing I did are on
two computers that are located in my office.

The database pulls all its information from that db and no other db.

The next issue is going to be hard to explain so I will try my best to
explain it:
Just to clarify, this next issue could be related to the above because it is
only happening on the same computers (there are 4 that I know of) that has
this issue.
There are 7 other people who use this DB and are not having any issues.

Once the db is open, the user clicks on a button, lets call it "A", once the
"A" window appears, they click on a Button, lets call it "B", Once the "B"
window appears, they click on "C" which there they would see on the right
side 2 boxes that one will have a list of part numbers and the other will
have a list of vendors. This is normal on a working computer. The lists are
not showing up on the computers that are having the issue in the above
section.

What I am thinking is that there has be a setting on the computers that is
not set correctly, but I don't know.

I sure hope someone can help me out on this. I was not the one who created
this DB and the person who did has been long gone from the company. If
anything needs to be clairfied, please ask me and i will find out what i can.

Thanks so much!