MS Access question

Hi All,

Thanks in advance for reading this and any help you might have.

We have an Access 97 Database that a team leader is using , this causes a few registry problems as Office 2003 is standard on all machines.

I have asked the Team leader to port his database to office 2003 and they have refused as they say that "I can still make changes to tables in the background while users are still entering records, and that I don't have to stop everyone using the database if I want to make a change"

I reckon it may be a bit of laziness on this persons part but would I be correct in saying that :

1) you should not be editing the database tables if live data is being input

2) MS Access 2003 could do the exact same job if not better

3) surely there must be a program out there that would let you modify a database by way of something like SQL admin , you know , parsing bits of code to alter the database, rather than opening the .mdb file and clicking your way through

Would anyone know of a program that is good for altering Access databases without locking the .Mdb file ?

Or any other suggestions (peaceful suggestions) to help this user to upgrade to office 2003 ?

Thanks,
Fionn