>Jim,
>
>Is there a way to alter the header of the table to prevent it
>from being opened from outside of an app? This would take less
>time than encrypting and decrypting large tables record by record.

Kevin,

Yes you can do that, however it is not a sure fire protection. If one user is using the system and opens the table then any other user can then open that table too.

My point here is this, if you need to control access to the data then you need to controll access to the data. VFP has no databse security built into it, other products do. To me, it's like saying, "I have 10 tons of dirt to move but I only have a pickup truck, so I'll just make 20 trips with it" instead of renting a dump truck and getting the job done efficiently.

If a system requirement is for data security and you use VFP's internal data engine you have failed to meet the requirement. You could use MSDE instead and get security built in, or SQL Server, or Oracle, or Ingress, or Sybase, or Progress, or ...