I still have Access 2003 at work, but switching to Office 2010 Pro soon. Trying to gather some information in preparation.

I have built several Access 2003 databases with user-level security. One purpose of ULS is to identify the logged-in user, link that information to the personnel table, and allow that user to "sign" a record. The other purpose of ULS is to allow fuller access to the data for some users such as supervisors. Can Access 2010 runtime be used to run a file in Access 2003 format, complete with ULS?

The eventual plan is to use SQL Server (I just now posted some questions in that forum), but I am wondering if there is a transitional step that can work with ULS, particularly where the "signing" is concerned.

Yes, Access 2010 runtime can be used to run a file in Access 2003 format, complete with ULS.

Note, though, that if all you care about is identifying the current user, you can use the GetUserName API, as illustrated in Get Login name at "The Access Web"

Great, thanks for the information, Doug. I should have mentioned that when I referred to the logged-in user I meant CurrentUser in ULS rather than the network login.

Any reason you can't use the network login user rather than the CurrentUser?

It may be possible, but I'll have to look into it some more. Right now it's sort of like logging into UA: it can be done from any computer. The thing I don't know for sure is whether this will matter in the real world, or whether the network login is sufficient. It would simplify a number of things if the network login can be used. It just occurred to me that higher-level access could be limited to user logins for users who need to "sign" or otherwise identify themselves to the database, and that there could be basic access for everybody else, so if a supervisor needs to get at some more sensitive data it would have to be from his or her network login. Something like that. There are a lot of moving parts here.

There is actually multi-tiered access and permissions for several of the applications: basic data entry, some details, all information.

Anyhow, you have given me things to think about. Thanks for the input. Still a while until this is put into action.

I you are using Active Directory (Domain) then it I would recommend using the Windows User for the SQL Server and you application. This will allow a single log on to Windows, your app, and the SQL Server.