Creating and managing accounts
Accounts specify account names and (usually) passwords for a file. When a user opens a file that contains accounts, a dialog box usually prompts the user to enter account information. When a user opens a file with a correct account name and password, the
privilege set assigned to that account determines what the user can do in that file. For more information, see
About accounts, privilege sets, and extended privileges.
To create and manage accounts for a file, you need to open the file with an account that is assigned the Full Access privilege set, which is the only privilege set that permits making account changes to a file. If you open the file with any other privilege set, the
File menu >
Manage >
Security command is disabled.
You can create and modify accounts in a shared file while clients are using it. (In FileMaker Pro 6 and earlier, all clients had to close the shared file before you could change passwords and groups.) The account changes you make take effect immediately. However, the changes do not disrupt any current clients. For example, if you change the password for an account that is in use by one or more clients, their FileMaker Pro usage is not interrupted. However, they will need to enter the new password the next time they open the file.
You can create as many accounts as you need. You can create individual accounts for each user, or a smaller number of accounts that users can share. Each database file also contains two predefined accounts: Admin and Guest. For more details, see
About the Admin and Guest accounts.