Freeze panes bug in Shared file

[Guest]

This is my situation:

Excel 2003 SP2
worksheet with Autofilter set in Row 1
Shared file
Shared file protected
Freeze pane for heading (Row 1)
File saved in a filtered state

The file works fine until I save it in a filtered state. When I reopen the
file, I can unfilter the worksheet, but the freeze pane boundary moves from
just below the heading to just above the first item that was filtered.

I create these files once a year for a large number of people. I didn't have
this problem last year, but I don't remember which version of Excel I was
using to create the files, probably Excel 2000.

I have created and distributed about 50 such files in the last 2 weeks to
distribute to unsophisticated computer users. What a pain to have to now
teach them how to deal with this bug.

Does anyone have any help for me? Does Billy Gates even know about it? I
can't seem to find much info on this bug.

Thanks so much!
Auntie

 

[Jan Karel Pieterse]

Hi Auntie,

Excel 2003 SP2
worksheet with Autofilter set in Row 1
Shared file
Shared file protected

Bad news I'm afraid. I have always advised against sharing Excel
workbooks and will repeat that once again: don't! Excel wasn't designed
for multiuser access to information, you should strongly consider
building databases to do this. Shared workbooks tend to crash and loose
information.

Regards,

Jan Karel Pieterse
Excel MVP
http://www.jkp-ads.com

 

[Guest]

HI Jan,

Unfortunately, I don't have a choice. The people I am sharing the files with
don't have Access (or any other db software) available to them. We share the
files via email. The reason I have them set up as shared is so that I can
more easily track the changes they make. Otherwise, I would have to proofread
the entire file every time they send it to me. All together, there are 20,000
records that I have to deal with over the course of a year, and I sure want
all the help I can get!

This is a volunteer organization that doesn't have the bucks to provide any
more robust software to our members. They are using their own computers and
software.

I didn't have this problem last year (when I was probably using Excel 2000,
but I'm not sure.

So, do you think there is any chance that Microsoft will fix this problem?
Or am I out of luck?

 

[Jan Karel Pieterse]

Hi Auntie,

The people I am sharing the files with
don't have Access (or any other db software) available to them.

If you have a developer edition of Office, you can create compiled
databases anyone can use.

Regards,

Jan Karel Pieterse
Excel MVP
http://www.jkp-ads.com