Multiple users opening same Excel spreadsheet.

E

Ehren

We are having a issue in which several users have to use the same excel sheet
to add different things and or make revisions but when one of these people
leaves it open the other people can not open it in an editable mode. There
are a couple of people that it will tell which user has the sheet open and
they can go to that person and have them close it. All others just say
different variations of "another user has this open, would you like to open a
copy, or would you like to open it as read only" But there is no way of
telling who it is.

Is there any way to make it display who has it open or to alleviate this
issue that anyone can think of?

Much appreciation in advance!
 
S

SteveG

You could make the workbook a shared workbook. Have everyone exit the
workbook. Open it and then go to Tools, Share Workbook. Select
checkbox next to the "Allow changes by more than one user at the same
time..." statement on the Editing tab. Click OK. You will be prompted
to save the workbook. Click Yes. See "About shared workbooks" in the
Help file.


HTH

Steve
 
E

Ehren

Hmm! That is interesting, thanks. What kind of implications does that have
if multiple people are saving things at the same time? Does it have some
sort of conflict solving process?
 
S

SteveG

Ethren,

Yes. From the Help topic "About shared workbooks, Editing a share
workbook":

After you open a shared workbook, you can enter and change data as yo
do in a regular workbook. A few aspects are different from working in
regular workbook, however.

Seeing other users' changes Each time you save the shared workbook
you're updated with any changes that others have saved since the las
time you saved. If you want to keep the shared workbook open to monito
progress, you can have Microsoft Excel update you with change
automatically, at timed intervals that you specify, with or withou
saving the workbook yourself.

Resolving conflicts When you save changes to a shared workbook
another person who's currently editing the workbook might have save
changes to the same cells. In this case, the changes conflict, and
conflict resolution dialog box appears that allows you to decide whos
changes to keep.

Keeping personal views and settings Excel saves a custom view (view
A set of display and print settings that you can name and apply to
workbook. You can create more than one view of the same workboo
without saving separate copies of the workbook.) of the shared workboo
for you that includes things like which worksheet you have displayed an
your zoom settings. By default your view includes any filter (filter: T
display only the rows in a list that satisfy the conditions you specify
You use the AutoFilter command to display rows that match one or mor
specific values, calculated values, or conditions.) and print setting
you make, or you can specify that you want to use the original filte
and print settings. Each time you open the shared workbook, Exce
displays it with your view in effect, so that each user can have his o
her own settings.


Regards,

Stev
 
Top