Microsoft Access 2010 Bible

Chapter 24: Optimizing Access Applications

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can’t be opened exclusively. (Actually, the first user can open it exclusively, but no other

user can access the database until the first user closes it.) The preferred method for run-

ning an application in a network environment is to run Access and the main .accdb file

locally, and then link to a shared database containing the data on the server.

Cross-Reference
The process of opening a database exclusively is explained in detail in Chapter 21.

To open a database exclusively in Access, in the Open dialog box click the Open button

down arrow and select Open Exclusive (see Figure 24.7).

FIGURE 24.7

Selecting the Open Exclusive option when opening an Access database

Tip
If you always want to open a database exclusively, you can make this the default setting. Click the Microsoft
Office button and select Access Options. In the Access Options dialog box, select the Advanced tab. Change
the Default Open Mode to Exclusive if you always want to open a database exclusively. (The Default Open
Mode is otherwise set to Shared.)

l (^) Compacting databases regularly: An often-overlooked way of maximizing a database’s
performance is to routinely compact the database. When records are deleted from an
Access database, the hard drive space that held the deleted data is not recovered until a
compact is performed. In addition, a database becomes fragmented as data is modified in
the database. Compacting a database defragments the database and recovers hard drive
space.