carl0s Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Here's a funny one. Seems fundamentally 'expected behaviour' to me, but anyway.. Chappy opens up an Excel workbook. The workbook is flagged that it should be opened up read-only unless vital not to. So the chap clicks "Open as Read-Only" as recommended. He then opens up the same workbook again, but as Read/Write. The idea is that he can refer to the original one whilst working on the editing in-progess one. I'm not 100% why he wants to work this way, but he wants to. The problem is that in opening the workbook for a second time as Read/Write, the initially opened workbook loses its read-only status, meaning he can accidentally save the original over his work in progress. I tried googling, but it's a tough one to pin down with search terms. The worksheet is held on a Windows Server, so CIFS/SMB share, in an Active Directory environment. XP Pro client. I'd guess and say it's pretty expected behaviour and could at worst be called a limitation in either Excel's or NT's file locking. More likely the former (Excel's method of flagging something as RO/RW, rather than NT's which I'm sure would flag each occurrence with a session ID or something). Anyone ran into this before? It's not something I've had cause to look into before. My feelings are that he should not work this way, and should make a copy of the file and work on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Todd Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 I'm not 100% why he wants to work this way, but he wants to. Easy solution for this one. Tell the bugger to save a copy to his desktop with the word copy in the filename, he can then delete it once he's finished copying stuff from it. In a perfect world you should have an IT solution but sometimes just telling the user to piss off and use common sense is the easier option Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted April 29, 2008 Author Share Posted April 29, 2008 Easy solution for this one. Tell the bugger to save a copy to his desktop with the word copy in the filename, he can then delete it once he's finished copying stuff from it. In a perfect world you should have an IT solution but sometimes just telling the user to piss off and use common sense is the easier option Yeah, kind of my thoughts really. He's a nice chap but very black & white about these things, and expects things to do what he wants if what he wants seems logical/reasonable to him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted April 29, 2008 Author Share Posted April 29, 2008 He would possibly see this recommendation as "an unnecessary workaround to a problem that should be fixed", IYSWIM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Todd Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 He would possibly see this recommendation as "an unnecessary workaround to a problem that should be fixed", IYSWIM Tell him to email [email protected] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted April 29, 2008 Author Share Posted April 29, 2008 Ok Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Todd Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Just out of interest, is he opening the file twice from the same instance of excel? If he opens excel then opens workbook A, then another session of excel and opens workbook A again does he get the same problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted April 29, 2008 Author Share Posted April 29, 2008 Just out of interest, is he opening the file twice from the same instance of excel? If he opens excel then opens workbook A, then another session of excel and opens workbook A again does he get the same problem? I'm not sure. Will have a look tomorrow when I can get onto his computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelfill Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 what happens if he does it the other way round ? Opens RW then opens RO - Excel should spot that the file is in use and being editted by "another user" and only allow him to open it RO anyway. Should be the simplest solution to a stupid problem Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted April 29, 2008 Author Share Posted April 29, 2008 what happens if he does it the other way round ? Opens RW then opens RO - Excel should spot that the file is in use and being editted by "another user" and only allow him to open it RO anyway. Should be the simplest solution to a stupid problem Mike Hmm. You might be onto a clever solution there, but if the Excel locking really is limited in the way I think it might be, then it could show the same symptoms e.g. overriding the status of the initially opened document. I'll give it a go. Good idea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelfill Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 it should work - tested it here Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted April 29, 2008 Author Share Posted April 29, 2008 it should work - tested it here Mike Awesome. Top man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Easiest way to do what you want is open up the file by double clicking on it and selecting read only. Do not open the file again, instead open up a fresh excel sheet by going to start-programs-excel or wherever it is. Then simply use the "file-open" method to open the file and select read/write. I've had problems like this before, the above is the easy solution. You can also create shortcuts to do what you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted April 29, 2008 Author Share Posted April 29, 2008 Easiest way to do what you want is open up the file by double clicking on it and selecting read only. Do not open the file again, instead open up a fresh excel sheet by going to start-programs-excel or wherever it is. Then simply use the "file-open" method to open the file and select read/write. I've had problems like this before, the above is the easy solution. You can also create shortcuts to do what you want. I think Mike's method is easiest, as it's simply just changing the order of operations, but I will try this out too. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Yeah, it seems simpler, wasn't there when i started typing though lol On no wait, it was hmmm. I need to read more thoroughly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl0s Posted April 29, 2008 Author Share Posted April 29, 2008 Yeah, it seems simpler, wasn't there when i started typing though lol On no wait, it was hmmm. I need to read more thoroughly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivan Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 He would possibly see this recommendation as "an unnecessary workaround to a problem that should be fixed", IYSWIM I used to hate users like this. They always blame the IT guy and expect you to fix it when it's a limitation of the software or the way they're working. "But I want to do it this way, not the way Bill tells me I have to." Luckily I don't have to tolerate them anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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