Database Properties and Encryption

Quick reference

• 00:04 In this lesson, we're going to take a look at database properties, and
• 00:08 also encrypted with a password.
• 00:10 Now to look at both of these items, we need to jump into the backstage area.
• 00:15 So let's jump up to File, and the first page we want to look at is the Info page.
• 00:21 Now notice all the way over on the right hand side,
• 00:24 we have a little link here that says, view and edit database properties.
• 00:29 So if we click this, it's going to pop open this little window,
• 00:32 where we can add different properties for this database.
• 00:36 We have numerous different tabs of information that we can complete at
• 00:40 the top.
• 00:41 So if we jump across to General,
• 00:43 this is just going to give us some general information about this database.
• 00:47 So we can see the location where it's saved,
• 00:50 we can see the size of the database.
• 00:53 We can also see when it was created, modified, and accessed.
• 00:57 The Summary tab is going to show us a little bit more information.
• 01:01 Now currently I don't have a great deal in here, and
• 01:04 really we kind of use this panel to document our databases,
• 01:08 it can be useful information for other people to know.
• 01:12 So currently the title of this database is just Database5,
• 01:15 that was the initial name of this database when we created it.
• 01:19 So I'm actually going to change this.
• 01:22 I could add a subject if I wanted to,
• 01:25 you can see the author of the database, so in this case, me.
• 01:29 I could add in the manager, I can add in some company information,
• 01:33 I can even add in things like categories and keywords,
• 01:37 which is going to make it easier for me to search for this database in File Explorer.
• 01:42 And if you do think about adding keywords, so maybe something like ticketing,
• 01:48 you need to separate the fields with a comma.
• 01:51 I can also add in some additional comments about this database.
• 01:55 If we move across to the Statistics tab, this is showing us some statistics.
• 02:00 So again, we can see when it was created, modified, and last accessed.
• 02:05 The Contents, that gives me an overview of the tables, the queries,
• 02:09 the forms, and the reports that I currently have in this database.
• 02:13 And notice that we don't have any Macros, or Modules,
• 02:16 because those are outside the scope of this beginner course.
• 02:20 And then finally, we have a Custom tab.
• 02:22 And again,
• 02:22 completing properties using the Custom tab is outside the scope of this course.
• 02:27 So this basically gives you useful information about your database.
• 02:32 Now it might be that your database contains particularly sensitive
• 02:35 information that you don't want necessarily everybody to be able to see.
• 02:40 Now in older versions of access,
• 02:42 the way that we dealt with this was to password protect the database.
• 02:46 But over time, there were many pieces of third party software, which could in
• 02:51 fact break open that database so that people could read the information in it.
• 02:55 So since then, Microsoft has changed the way that this works, and
• 02:59 they've added encryption.
• 03:01 And this makes it a lot harder for
• 03:03 people to open any databases that have encryption and a password on them.
• 03:07 Now there's one very important thing that you need to remember if you want to
• 03:11 encrypt with a password.
• 03:13 And that is, the database must be open for exclusive use,
• 03:17 meaning you're the only one in the database when you add the password.
• 03:21 Now in this scenario right now, I know that I'm the only one using this database.
• 03:26 And it might be if you're following along with this course,
• 03:29 you know that you are the only one using that database.
• 03:32 But in a real world scenario,
• 03:34 it might be that database is shared with many other people.
• 03:37 And what you can't do is encrypt with a password if somebody else is also
• 03:42 looking and using that database.
• 03:44 So you need to open it first of all for exclusive use.
• 03:48 So what we're going to do here is we're going to close down TechGurusTicketing34.
• 03:55 And we're going to go and reopen it, but
• 03:57 we're going to reopen in a slightly different way.
• 03:59 So let's go to Open, and for this we need to browse,
• 04:03 we don't select it from our recent files list.
• 04:06 So let's go to Browse and
• 04:07 find our file, and it's this one just here that we want to open.
• 04:11 Now what I'm going to do is instead of clicking on Open, I'm going to click
• 04:15 the drop down, and notice we have an option to Open Exclusive.
• 04:19 So let's click on this to open it up, and
• 04:22 now I know that I'm the only one in this database.
• 04:25 If somebody else was using the database, it wouldn't let me open in exclusive mode.
• 04:31 So now I can go to File, into Info, and Choose Encrypt with Password.
• 04:37 I'm going to add a quick password, we need to verify the password.
• 04:42 So now if we close this down, and then try and
• 04:46 reopen it again, it's going to ask us for the password
• 04:54 And there we go, now it's open.
• 04:57 Similarly, if you want to decrypt this file and effectively remove that password,
• 05:02 you need to make sure you open for exclusive use again.
• 05:05 So let's do exactly the same thing, back into Open,
• 05:10 I'm going to Browse, is this file here we want to Open Exclusive.
• 05:15 We need to type in the password.
• 05:18 And now if we go into File and Info we can decrypt the database.
• 05:23 It will ask us to confirm our password one more time.
• 05:25 And now, if we close one last time and
• 05:31 reopen, we no longer are being
• 05:36 prompted for a password.

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