locked for editing

[Bill SG]

I've been getting this problem recently. An excel file frequently claims
that it is locked for editing when I try to open it. If I restart the
computer, it's okay, but it's not always convenient to restart when I need
access to that file. This happens even when no one else could possibly be
accessing the file over the network because I am disconnected from it and no
one has access. The fie is on my local hard drive.

What can cause this? A bad or incomplete save? The file is not corrupt when
I reboot and am able to access it.

Where is the locked for editing status stored? In the file? In memory? In
the registry?

Any way to clear that or close the supposed access by someone else without
rebooting?

Thanks,

Bill

 

[Dave Peterson]

You could try a couple of things at Debra Dalgleish's site:
http://www.contextures.com/xlfaqApp.html#AlreadyOpen

If that doesn't fix it, it might be that excel crashed and didn't close
completely. It's still running in a hidden window.

Depending on the version of windows that you're running, you might be able to
hit alt-ctrl-delete, got into taskmanager, verify that it's not in a visible
window (under Applications).

Then look at the Processes Tab. I like to sort that list by clicking on the
title (just like windows explorer). Look for excel.exe. If you find it (and
it's not shown in the Applications tab, kill that process.

I can do this in win2k (at work), but win98 doesn't support this.

And after you do this, you may want to clean up the windows temp folder. Excel
puts a few "control" files in that folder (at least for files stored on your
local harddrive). Don't clean up this temp folder while you're
installing/removing programs.

 

[Bill SG]

Call it Murphy's Law, I guess, but it hasn't happened since I asked, so I
can't test it. I'll keep this post for reference when the problem returns.
Thanks.