How to open a "locked for editing" spreadsheet to unlock it?

[Guest]

Since my upgrade to Office 2003, my Excel files are "locked for editing."
Some of them were files created in Excel 2000, a couple of others were closed
by the computer restart when MS's automatic updates processed and the files
were open. Is there some way to stop this?

 

[Gord Dibben]

Most common cause.............

Excel stores in Windows\Temp(win98) folder a copy(s) of any file that is open.

Sometimes this *.tmp file is not deleted from the Temp folder when you close
out Excel(maybe a crash of Excel?) or the file, so Excel thinks it is still
open and locked for editing.

You can try a re-boot and see if that clears it up. If not, after a re-boot,
clear out your Windows\Temp folder.

If using WinXP your Temp folder would be under user.......

Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Temp

If on a network, re-booting the server may be the only solution.


Gord Dibben Excel MVP

Since my upgrade to Office 2003, my Excel files are "locked for editing."
Some of them were files created in Excel 2000, a couple of others were closed
by the computer restart when MS's automatic updates processed and the files
were open. Is there some way to stop this?

Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP