I have created a dtabasse system that has been working very well excecpt for a few problems. Several records have "disappeared" or have been "deleted" by various users when they tried to do a search or some other command incorrectly. I have sat down with them many times to explain all thsi but it just isn't getting through. The way the system works is an engineer creates a record and fills in a few fields of info. These fields are used by the user to search but they should nto be able to edit them. The user MUST be able to edit the information that remains below in a portal. I have restricted access from the user to be able to Delete and Create records but how do I restrict the user from editing only certain fields. Now the problem also arises that everyone logs into the system as a GUEST and that cannot be altered due to the way the entire filemmaker server is set up. How do I allow one password all access and one password only access to certain fields?

Check FM access privileges and Set Group with required access level. It is very easy to do what you need.

Try sending the user to a different layout thta looks the same but the fields are set to not allow modification. As far as being able to search the fields. Write a script that sends them to the original layout in Find mode, After the find is performed send them back to the the layout where the fields cant be modified. HTH