If I open a file from the task bar by double-clicking, I end
up opening it twice because only a single-click is required.
The result is that the second opening is "read-only". If I
close that then the 1st open is okay except that my customized
toolbars are destroyed.
Before you open the file check to see if the read-only attribute
is turned on by right-clicking on the file and checking properties.
If the file had been copied by copy/paste to a CD-Writer then
the read-only attribute gets turned on. XCOPY turns off the
read-only attribute so such files are not a problem, but most
other utilities result in setting the Read-only bit.
Look at your windows Task Manager to see if you have more
than one instance of Excel, see if Help is working.
From the shortcuts area of the Windows task bar only one
click is needed. Double-click results in invoking twice.
Make sure the "Ignore other applications" is not selected under Tools,
Options, General.
Something More to Check: File, Save As, Tools, General Options, Read-Only option
is on the same dialog that you use to set a password
Clear out all files in the Temporary Internet Directory. Excel
cannot have two files with the same name open at the same time.
Normally you would not want to share a workbook, because if you do, you
will not be able to change your macros, or update your workbook if someone
else has it open for update. You can check if the workbook is shared
by looking at Tools, then if you see Share the workbook, it is not shared.
You can turn sharing on or off from the Tools menu.
Do you see “[Shared]” on the Title bar, if you do you might take a look at
Highlight Change, as you may have experimented
having changes you made marked automaticall. It is a difficult to
work with feature best used by several people just before finalizing.
It is very poorly used when one attempts to track every change made during
it's life cylce. It is very wasteful of resources and very restrictive
in that sharing makes macros in the workbook very difficult to work with.
To remove a workbook from shared use
Tools --> Share Workbook --> Editing (tab) -->
uncheck Allow changes by more than one person --> OK --> Yes
As previously mentioned, if you backed up some files to a CD-R, most applications
will set the read-only attribute. Since a CD-RW can be written on
they will not have read only attribute set by copy operations.
XCOPY is one applicaiton that will not set the read only attribute --
unless specifically asked to. Check your
directory and subdirectories for read only attribute (/ar) with...
DIR c:\temp\*.* /ar /s
You can use the ATTRIB command to turn read only on (+R) or off (-R),
the following will turn off the read-only bit for the included directory and all subdirectories below it,
also unhides (-H) any hidden files.
ATTRIB -H -R -S c:\temp /s /d
A faster way to turn off the read only attribute for
a directory and subdirectories is from the properties. Right click on a file or a directory in a file manager or explorer listist and look
at properties. If you change read only it will affect the file,
or if a directory it will affect the directory and all sub directories.
On the confirm attributes change dialog, click on the
“Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files”.
Look at the HELP information for the following commands
help dir --or use--
dir /?
help attrib --or use-- attrib /?
For your testing you can make a file read only
cd c:\temp
ATTRIB +R a.txt
