Excel files won't open on shared Novell drive when another user has it open

[nwp]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

When opening an Excel file that another user already has open, our PC users (Excel 2003 or Excel 2007) typically get a "Do you want to open this file as Read Only". Our Mac users get an error message stating, "The file may be read-only, or you may be trying to access a read-only location..." and the file fails to launch at all. Further, the file cannot be copied to the desktop. Our Mac users would be happy just to have a Read Only version of the file, but we cannot get the shared files to open while another has it open.

The Shared Workbook option is not good because they tend to use grouping and other functions that are typically disabled in Shared Workbooks. The only alternative I can think of is using our Sharepoint site for these types of files, but it would be nice if they could simply grab a copy from the network drive without having to log into Sharepoint and navigate to the appropriate section there.

Any ideas? I've tested this on two Macs -- both 10.5 -- neither XLS or XLSX will open if another user has it open (read only or otherwise). Office 2008 has been patched to 12.2.1

Thanks in advance for your help!

NP

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

When opening an Excel file that another user already has open, our PC users (Excel 2003 or Excel 2007) typically get a "Do you want to open this file as Read Only". Our Mac users get an error message stating, "The file may be read-only, or you may be trying to access a read-only location..." and the file fails to launch at all. Further, the file cannot be copied to the desktop. Our Mac users would be happy just to have a Read Only version of the file, but we cannot get the shared files to open while another has it open.

The Shared Workbook option is not good because they tend to use grouping and other functions that are typically disabled in Shared Workbooks. The only alternative I can think of is using our Sharepoint site for these types of files, but it would be nice if they could simply grab a copy from the network drive without having to log into Sharepoint and navigate to the appropriate section there.

Any ideas? I've tested this on two Macs -- both 10.5 -- neither XLS or XLSX will open if another user has it open (read only or otherwise). Office 2008 has been patched to 12.2.1

Thanks in advance for your help!

NP

Hi,

I have two suggestions. Hopefully one of these will address the issue:

1. Try with fully updated Office in fully updated Mac OS X 10.6
2. Try Dave from Thursby.

-Jim