I have a layout with lots of field that has to be locked to prevent guests editing them. But is there a way to keep them locked and still be able to search the field?

Make a calculation field = original field, and display the calculation field on the layout. The text can be selected, copied and used in a find, but because it's a calc field the data cannot be changed.

Hi Ed1,

The method Vaughan has suggested will certainly work (which is no doubt why he has those five stars below his name... ) but since, as you say, there are a lot of fields on the layout in question, you are going to end up with a lot of extra calculations in your database if you take that advice.

A rather simpler method would be to define a password that guests will open the database with (which can be set as a default password in Edit>Document Privileges, if you don't want guests to have to enter the password) and then define that password to have limited edit capabilities, using the formula:

not Status(CurrentLayoutName) = "TheNameOfYourLockedLayout"

That way users logged in with the guest password will get an error if they try to edit any of the fields on the layout in question, but they will still be able to perform finds on all the fields (and they will still have edit privileges elsewhere in the database).