File Saving/Locking with Excel different between 2003 AND 2007>

[Phil Smith]

We just moved over to 2007, within the last couple of months.

Before, in 2003, it appeared that when you saved an existing file, it
deleted that file, and saved a new copy.
When file was open by someone else on the network, you would get a
message about opening it up later, or opening it up read only, based on
the fact that it was already opened by someone else.

Now, with 2007, it appears that the existing file is opened, and changes
are inserted into it, rather than dumping and creating a new one. Is
there any way to change this back to the old method?

Now with 2007, it appears that instead of relying on the fact that a
file is in use by someone else, Excel is creating a hidden file, that
begins with "~" that it uses to tell of a file is in use. If this file
does not get deleted, the spreadsheet become unacceptable.

This behavior is not optimal on my network. We keep getting files that
we can't open because they are "in use". but in reality, they are not in
use/ Also, we do not get consistent message saying that the file is in
use, sometimes a file will just hang on opening.

Any ideas?
Any help?

Phil