>I guess I'm not real sure what the concern is regarding a DBC. It has its advantages, and I'm fairly certain you can make it read-only to help prevent possible corruption.
>
>My vote is to use the DBC...

As of now, it looks like data should be in a single table (like Excel) that internally contains several tables accessible through views. That requires the use of a DBC, I believe, although I am open to ideas. In any case, the framework we use (Codemine) requires a DBC that we can include in the project because it can be read only, but the data tables will be free tables. In order to keep it down to a single table we'll have to create indices each time we open. Too bad, but using a single table takes precedence.

I foresee a problem with views since users should be able to name tables anything they want, so perhaps we'll have to copy the DBC out of the exe and modify it before using it.

I can't thank the UT members enough for the discussion, which has clarified many things. Thanks to all.

Alex