I apologize if this has been addressed previously (and I'm sure it has
considering its basically the topic of this newsgroup) but I'll ask
anyway...

We had been running an Access 97 database with roughly 50 users, and
generally no more than 20 accessing it at any one time.  This was a single
mdb file sitting on our network drive which each of our users opened
directly.  There are only 2 of us who do any development work on the
database, the rest of the users simply pull up data in reports and forms,
and occasionally enter data into tables via forms.  In our Access 97 version
the developers were able to update almost any object in the database at any
time, regardless of how many users had the mdb file open.  We have since
converted to an Access 2002-2003 database, and we are now running into
problems updating the file.  Now, Access only lets us update forms, reports,
macros and modules when one of the developers has the mdb file open with
exclusive rights.  Any time another user is already in the file, we are
unable to make any changes.  We have since created a backup database file
used exclusively for development.  We then wait for a period later in the
day when all of our users are out of the primary mdb file and copy any
altered objects from the development db into the main file.  However, we
have users accessing the database from multiple sites and multiple time
zones, making it difficult to find a convenient time to copy our changes.

I realize the new security features help prevent database corruption and
generally make the file less likely to be tampered with, but I was wondering
if there is any way to turn these security measures off?  Either by a
setting from within Access or by changing some registry key?

If this is not an option, then are there suggestions for a database
structure that will suit our needs?  I've read about splitting the database
into front-end and back-end copies, and while this can help us in some ways,
I still don't see how we can update the front-end app without having each of
our users out of the file.  A majority of our development work in the
database is to the front-end objects, and it seems cumbersome to have each
of our users copy a new front-end mdb file to their local machine every time
an update is made.  Any suggestions on how we can provide regular updates to
the front-end database?

I appreciate any help, and I apologize for the length of this post.  Thanks.