Perhaps I am missing something!! but the command

grant create view to highleveluser

works fine whereas

grant alter view to highleveluser

gives the message: "Server:...

Thanks! Actually creating views is not so much a problem as altering them. It seems that only people with dbo access can alter views, and then they can alter tables...

Thanks for your response Andy. The kind of procedures I am running on the full data set include:

- creating a full list of Contacts to send to an outside agency...

Thanks everyone, I'll try SHRINKDATABASE.

Jane