Hidden Columns & Rows in a Shared Wookbook

[Tom]

I have a workbook that I started and I have since shared it with others. I
have numerous rows and columns thati have hidden. It seems that every time a
new user opens the workbook and saves it while I have it closed, the next
time I open the work book it unhides all rows and columns. Any suggestions?

 

[Dave Peterson]

I'd check to see if the other users are unhiding those rows and columns.

 

[Tom]

When a new user opens the file for the first time, they see all the rows and
columns that I or other users had already hidden. When the new user closes
the file, whatever view they had gets saved and the next time anyone opens
the file they are stuck with it.
I have noticed that under View, Custom View, I can see each person's
personal view file name. I believe these are only for their print settings
and the not the hidden file settings. Would it help to add a new view here?
It says it controls hidden rows and columns. Is this what needs to be done?

 

[Dave Peterson]

It sure looks like those "UserNameHere - personal view" views include the
column/row settings. (You wrote "hidden file settings". Did you mean "hidden
row/column settings?)

It sounds like excel sees that you're hiding the rows/columns in your personal
view--not the "general" default view.

This might not work, so you may want to do some testing first.

Try unsharing the workbook, hiding the columns you want hidden, then save the
file and share it.


I tried some testing and threw away my results. Each time I tried to do the
same thing and I got different results.

I did this in a loop (3 times)
Close excel
restart excel.
change the user name under tools|Options|general tab
Open the shared workbook.
(I thought it would be the "normal" view.
Sometimes it was, sometimes it was the last one saved.)

I don't have a good guess what's happening or why.

Either I can't test it correctly (and I know it's a pain going through that 3
step loop a few times!)

Or it's doing things that I don't understand.

And at this point--both are possible!

And there did seem to be a difference in behavior when I had multiple instances
open with the workbook open in each instance.

ps. I wasn't sure if you really meant tools|share workbook in your original
post--or just put it on a common drive (or emailed it to each recipient). Sorry
about that misunderstanding.

pps. I don't like custom views. I like to use a macro (or several macros) that
show/hide what I want.

I'm not quite sure what you really want.

But maybe you could provide a macro that would hide/unhide stuff based on the
username--or even provide a button to do the work.