excel prob - cant save worksheet if someone has it open in a veiwe

[Stephen]

Client has a prob where they have staff using 2003 excel viewer and if they
have a workbook open in veiwer, then the accounts staff can't save their
changes in the same workbook in their Excel 2002 program without having to go
around to find and close the offending veiwer. Any way around this? is this
a known MS prob?
Thanks for any info

 

[gimme_this_gimme_that]

Can the files be reviewed in AppleWorks instead of Excel Viewer?

I think AppleWorks comes with Tiger (I have it and don't remember
installing it) and it reads Excel 2007 files.

 

[Stephen]

Hi there - thanks for reply. Client is all xp pro running back to sbs2003
server so they don't have AppleWorks etc.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Stephen -

Which program used makes no difference - Excel files are single-user by
default, so once the file is opened by anyone in any app successive users
are automatically set as Read Only.

The alternative is for The file to be designated as a Shared Workbook - in
Excel 2002/3 it's in the Tools menu. You might want to investigate the
subject of Shared Workbooks in Excel Help.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Stephen]

Hi Cybertaz... Thanks for reply.
We tried your suggestion (made workbook shared and allowed changes then
opened it on another workstation with excel viewer) but we still get "sharing
violations - Save changes in a temporary file or lose changes" etc. Any
further idea's?
Thanks

 

[CyberTaz]

It sounds like there's something about having the file accessed by the
Viewer that is tagging it as Read Only - perhaps because the Viewer doesn't
allow editing. You might test first by opening in Excel on one system &
accessing it from another using Excel. As long as the sharing works you'll
have narrowed it down to the viewer. Otherwise there may be a problem with
your sharing/network config.

Whether there is a workaround I don't know. If you haven't already you might
post the issue on the WinXL side where you may find others with more
exposure to this type of issue.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Stephen]

Hi Bob
Thanks for the reply again. I will try other groups as suggested. Where is
WinXL?

 

[CyberTaz]

You might start here for a complete listing:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/FlyoutOverview.mspx

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Todd Aton]

To be honest, we have the same problem here. Just last week I had to call a
coworker to close a workbook so I could edit it. Yikes! You'd think we'd
figure that one out. That's the problem shared workbooks were supposed to
solve and that's why I'm jumping in.

I am intrigued by the sharing violation you're experiencing. Would you give
me the specific combination of Excel viewer/application and OS that your
client is using? Is this all in Windows or partially on the Mac? I'm
wondering if we didn't test out saving a shared workbook while it was open
in a viewer. Perhaps I can recreate the offense and offer a suggestion.

Todd Aton
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft Corporation
(e-mail address removed)