To answer your questions in reverse order, before the database is in use,
the prototype copy is the copy of the database that you're working on.
After the database is delivered, the copy that users use will be the
production copy, while you the developer will keep a copy for yourself,
which will be the prototype copy. Any subsequent work on the database
should be done on the prototype, which isn't access any real information and
therefore the loss of that information will not matter. After the work is
done, tested, approved, etc, you then release the new production copy.
If you were to work on the production database, then you risk losing data,
breaking the app and preventing people from doing their work, etc.
To make a prototype copy, just do a save as on the file.
A prototype combined with frequent backups will make your life much easier.
-Carlos
"Catherine Jo Morgan" <cj******@hemc. net> wrote in message
news:Ua******** ************@he mc.net...
I get the point of backing up the database I'm working on, but what's a
prototype copy? How do I make one and why is it important to work on that
rather than on the main database? Or is this more for later
troubleshooting and changes than for the original making of the db? TIA
