Excel 2010 Bible

Chapter 30: Using Excel in a Workgroup

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FIGURE 30.1

The File in Use dialog box appears if you try to open a file that someone else is using.

The File in Use dialog box has three choices:

l Click Cancel, wait a while, and try again. You may call the person who has the file res-

ervation and ask when the file will be available.

l Click Read Only. Open the file to read it, but you cannot save changes to the same

filename.

l Click Notify. This opens the file as read-only. Excel later pops up a message that notifies

you when the person who has the file reservation is finished using the file.

Figure 30.2 shows the message that appears when the file is available. If you open the file as Read-

Write, you receive another message if you makes any changes to this read-only version. You will

have an opportunity to discard your changes or to save his file with a new name.

FIGURE 30.2

The File Now Available dialog box pops up with a new message when the file is available for editing.

Sharing Workbooks

Although Excel isn’t a true multiuser application, it does support a feature known as shared work-

books, which enables multiple users to work on the same workbook simultaneously. Excel keeps

track of the changes and provides appropriate prompts to handle conflicts.

Caution
Although the ability to share workbooks sounds great in theory, it can be confusing if more than a few
users are sharing a single workbook. Also, be warned that this feature has been known to cause problems,
and it’s certainly not 100-percent reliable. Therefore, use caution and make frequent backup copies of your
workbooks. n