Have written a system in Access 2003 that uses automation to open Word
and display a document. No prob - works fine.

But for some users I want to restrict them to view only with no way to
edit documents and definitely no access to the file system. There are
some people I just don't want poking around!!

I've tried, but failed, to find a way to do this. I've looked into
opening Word but with most menu items disabled but couldn't get it to
work. I wondered about some kind of viewer but the ones I looked at
still had functions I don't want to appear. And I don't mind spending
money on something commercial if that's the only way to solve this.
All I really need is a document viewer with no menu items except
'Exit'.

Can anyone help please?

Thanks a lot
Dave

ps will eventually need to do the same for excel spreadsheets

Try protecting the document. Then unprotect it for your "good" users:

' If document is protected, Unprotect it.
If .ActiveDocument.ProtectionType <> wdNoProtection Then
.ActiveDocument.Unprotect Password:=""
End If

In the close event when the good guys are done, use:

' ReProtect the document.
If .ActiveDocument.ProtectionType = wdNoProtection Then
.ActiveDocument.ProtectType:=wdAllowOnlyFormFields , NoReset:=True
End If

Change: wdAllowOnlyFormFields to whatever type you wish.
--
Arvin Meyer, MCP, MVP
http://www.datastrat.com
http://www.accessmvp.com
http://www.mvps.org/access
Co-author: "Access Solutions", published by Wiley
"Dave G @ K2" <davegriffiths70 (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

On Nov 12, 11:33*am, "Dave G @ K2" <davegriffith... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:
You could convert the documents to pdf form. Then they could not edit
them.

On Nov 12, 5:35*pm, "Arvin Meyer" <arv... (AT) invalid (DOT) org> wrote:
Thanks Arvin

But am I right in thinking that this would not prevent a 'bad' user
from doing File -> Open in Word and accessing any other file - because
I must prevent this

On Nov 13, 3:34*pm, Jim Devenish <internet.shopp... (AT) foobox (DOT) com> wrote:
Thanks for this. I like this idea as I could convert a document on the
fly for 'bad' users. But do you know there are PDF readers that don't
give users access to the filesystem eg File -> Open as this is crucial?

Why not setup your server to give only read access to the locations you want
to hide?

"Dave G @ K2" <davegriffiths70 (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

On Nov 15, 1:23*pm, "paii, ron" <n... (AT) not (DOT) com> wrote:
Thanks for replay, but that would be horribly complicated especially
as some users can have full access while others can not.

All I want is some kind of document viewer that just pops up
displaying the document required and has a close button - nothing
else. Why is that so hard ?????

"Dave G @ K2" <davegriffiths70 (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

Why would it be hard? Setup 2 groups on the server, give one group full
access, the other read only.

Unless you control it though the OS, the un-trusted users will have access
to the files outside of Access if they have access within Access.

The only other way I can think of is to import the document into a Blob
field in Access and make the form read only to some users. You understand
that if security from un-trusted users is a concern, then a Jet BE may not
be the best choice.

Have you tried the standard Access Unbound Object Frame?

I've not used it myself but it sounds as though it would work as you want.

There seems to be plenty of Googleable code for it around.

HTH

Jon

"Dave G @ K2" <davegriffiths70 (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

Yes I did, but when the document is visible you can right click over
it which brings up a sub-menu with a way of opening up the doc in
Word. I couldn't find a way of preventing the sub-menu

Dave