Excel crashes opening Shared Worksheet

[Jack Connolly]

I have a shared worksheet on a file server. There are about 20 different
users using it. The file is in office 2003 file format. Some users are using
office 2003 some are using office 2007. When opening, some users get a crash,
3 times in a row, followed by a practically empty worksheet the third time.
The file is shared for multiple users. when they crash, their name shows up a
bunch of times as having the file currently open. Turning off file sharing
resolves the issue with all users.
turning it back on will sometimes stay resolved, but othertimes not. *right
now, its not resolving* but either way, the issue comes back. It is different
users each time, and different PCs. sometimes seems to follow the domain
username, sometimes not.
Jack Connolly, R. EEG T.
Technical Specialist
Childrens Hospital Boston

 

[Jan Karel Pieterse]

Hi Jack,

Turning off file sharing resolves the issue with all users.

I strongly advise you to implement this "solution". The shared workbook feature
of Excel is very flaky at best, if you do a search on this feature in this
newsgroup, you will see quite some posts on the subject. Loss of data,
corruption of the file, wrong data saved, edits lost to mention just a few
problems.

If you are using a mixture of Office 2003 and 2007 then sharing workbook is
even more troublesome, or even impossible.

You seriously need to look for a different solution to the problem for which
you are now using a shared workbook.

If multiple users really need to make changes to data, use a database
application.

If not, then set the workbook's property to "read-only recommended", so that
each user gets to choose whether or not to open the file readonly. If a user
really needs to make changes, he/she can open the file in read/write mode ON
PURPOSE and make the changes needed.

Avoid sharing workbooks!!!

Regards,

Jan Karel Pieterse
Excel MVP
http://www.jkp-ads.com
Member of:
Professional Office Developer Association
www.proofficedev.com

 

[Simon Murphy]

Jack
Does the workbook have VBA?
If so be sure to use codecleaner
(http://www.appspro.com/Utilities/CodeCleaner.htm) or manually export
and re-import the modules. (need to unshare it first.)
You should unshare it every couple of days to clear out the history.
Realistically shared workbooks have always been dangerously unstable,
trying to edit in a mixed environment will add to that.

Do all those users really need simultaneous read/write access?

Is there anyway you could split the workbook so only a couple of people
need access to each part?

Is there any fancy user interface stuff in there? If so maybe that could
be moved to a read only component that writes to a workbook in the
background?

Cheers
Simon
Excel development website: www.codematic.net