You will keep a master copy of the front-end. As you make changes to it,
you will redistribute the new front-end to your users.

Personally, I have a version table on my back-end and a one on my front-end.
If I want to distribute a new copy, I change the version date in my back-end
to the current date. I also set the date on the version table in my
front-end copy on the LAN to today's date.

Each of my user's open the front-end on their PCs and code runs that checks
the version in their local table against the version in the back-end table.
If they don't match, then a batch job runs that deletes their local
front-end and copies the LAN front-end.

There are lots of ways to automate the update process, this is just one
method. You could simply email your users and say, "Hey, there is a new
version of the database on the LAN. Copy it to your harddrive and start
using it."

Search previous posts in the newsgroups to find other ways to handle this.
Tony Tawes (sp?) has a tool called auto-updater. You could try to search
for that.


** Mkae sure you kee at least one good copy of the front-end handy when you
go to make changes. I keep bakups of almost all versions of my front-end on
a ZIP disk in case I ever need to fall back. I put them there before I
start making changes.


Good Luck,

Rick B


"HelenJ" wrote in message
...
I'm not sure if I should start a new thread here - but the last one went a
bit off topic so...

OK I have now split my database, (well only on my system) - but doesn't
this
now mean more work for me? from the articals that I read I got the
impression that the front end has to be "installed" on each users PC - so
won't that mean when I develop new reports forms etc I will have to copy
it
into multiple database front ends? (currently only 2 but will become more)

Or do I install the front end on the server so the users open it from
there?

Sorry I'm slightly confused and all the articles that I read seem to only
ever give part of the picture...