Pardue,
If you untick all the options under the Tools|Startup menu, you still
end up with a basic menubar by default... is that what you mean by
"check box for the default will not work"?
If you want no menu bar at all, you can make a custom menubar, with no
commands on it at all, and set this as the Menu Bar under Tools|Startup.
Leave this menubar un-docked, and close it the first time you open the
database after creating it, and it won't show again.
