I already read this help article on enforcing startup options (by disabling the shift key bypass) and copied the code into the VBA code editor. It worked. Problem is now I don't know how to re-enable the shift key. How do I get back to the VBA code editor for this file? I've turned off ribbons and menus so I can't open the code editor from the ribbon. I'm still learning so not very familiar yet, but it seems like an instance of the VBA code editor is tied to a particular Access file, meaning I can't just open a VBA window from another Access file and re-enable the shift key like that help article says to. Is there a workaround? This isn't the original database so I can recreate a copy if I've locked myself out of changing this one, but I feel like this shouldn't be irreversible until I've saved it as an ACCDE file.
After I've disabled the shift key bypass, disabled the use of special keys, hidden the navigation pane, turned off ribbons and menus, and saved the file as an ACCDE, is there still a way for users to access the tables directly and make changes that I haven't enabled through forms? I honestly don't care if people can see/open the tables and make select queries; I just want to turn off create, update, and delete permissions, but it seems Access doesn't have this capability like other RDBMSs do. So are there any more steps I need to take to complete this roundabout way of making the database read-only to external users?