Workbook will not open as readonly

[Quoc Nguyen]

After saving a workbook, exit out of excel and then
setting the workbook property to ReadOnly, I try to re-
open the workbook. When the workbook opens up, Read-Only
does not appear next to the filename in the Filename
display bar. Then when I click save, excel saves the
workbook as as a temporary file.

What would be causing excel to do this?
Thank you for any help you may provide.

 

[Rob Bovey]

It sounds like you want the kind of read-only workbook that is enforced
by Excel, rather than the operating system. To do this you need to open the
workbook, choose File/Save As from the menu then:

for Excel 97:
Click the Options button in the Save As dialog

for Excel 2000/2002
Choose Tools/General Options from the Save As dialog

Next, place a checkmark in the Read-only recommended checkbox in the Save
Options dialog and click OK twice to save the file as read-only (when Excel
asks you if you want to overwrite the existing file, choose Yes).

--
Rob Bovey, MCSE, MCSD, Excel MVP
Application Professionals
http://www.appspro.com/

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[Quoc Nguyen]

Rob, thank you for the quick response.

I tried your suggestion and now when I open up the
workbook, it brings up a message box that
says "'Filename.xls' should be opened as read-only unless
you need to save changes to it. Open as read-only?"

I would like the workbook to open up as read-only
automatically. This is the first time this has ever
happened to me. Usually if I set the property to read-
only, it opens up that way.

Is there another way to do this?

 

[Rob Bovey]

I'm not sure why Excel isn't reading the properties you set on the file
in Explorer. The file is obviously being treated by the operating system as
read-only, which is why Excel saves to a temporary file when you click the
save button. A few additional questions: Is the workbook on your local hard
disk or on a network drive? Has the read-only setting in Explorer worked on
this machine before? If so, have you changed anything on this machine
recently (such as installed any new programs)? If you mark a Word document
as read-only in Explorer does Word handle it correctly?

--
Rob Bovey, MCSE, MCSD, Excel MVP
Application Professionals
http://www.appspro.com/

* Please post all replies to this newsgroup *
* I delete all unsolicited e-mail responses *