A fast way to open a workbook as read-only

[Raymond85]

Hi,

I am running a call centre with 20 users at peak time. I have 1 user who will always have a master workbook open and saving throughout the day. The remainder of the users during calls will need to open this file as read-only to simply view the latest saved version.

This works however sometimes is takes a over a minute for the file to download from the server for the read only box to appear. I was wondering if there was a way for the other users to view it in a simpler and quicker way?

Also is anyone aware of any issues with the 1 user saving the file which others have it open as read only?

Thanks

[dilipandey]

why not use the google docs for this ....

Regards,
DILIPandey
<click on below * if this helps>

[Raymond85]

We aren't able to use any online services or any other applications unfortunately.

[dilipandey]

I guess when User 1 (master user) saves and updates the workbook, rest of the 19 users can set there Excel calculation mode to "manual" and then it may open quickly form them. Try it and let me know if this helps. thanks.

Regards,
DILIPandey
<click on below * if this helps>

[crispybadger]

Hi,

If the master user is saving the file periodically with updates, surely the other 19 members of staff will not see the changes until they close and re open the workbook? Is this not an issue?

Can you not just share it and track changes? The 19 can save as and when and the changes will appear?

We always set our "keep history" to one day in the advanced tab of share workbook, this will keep the size right down and the wb should open faster

Regards

[Raymond85]

We are running a manual booking system for a short period of time and we tested the shared workbook option however it caused issues when more than 2 users click save at the time after entering date into the same cell.

The users are just to open the calendar to see what is available and then close it. Its then pretty much real time. However accross the network all users opening is running slow.

Also there are no formulas being used.

[abubaniyan]

create 19 files for respective user......and link the 19 files to the master files...as soon as the master file is updated whole 19 files will be updated...

[crispybadger]

But you said that only one user make the changes, so why would 2 people ever save data in the same cell? The 19 users just need to hit save for the master users data to become visible? I agree that shared workbooks are a bit of a nightmare (We use them all the time) But as long as you have given clear instructions to your staff then it should be ok?

[Raymond85]

Ok, i'll explain a little more but I dont want to confuse things. Because of the shared workbook issues, I now have 1 person making all of the booking requests. The person on the phone opens as read only to see the availability and sends a message to that 1 person to make the booking.

[crispybadger]

How big is the file?

Could this perhaps be down to your internal server? Ours take about 30 seconds for a 10mb file to open

Regards

[Raymond85]

The file is only 315KB. Not big at all but does contain 70 worksheets.

[crispybadger]

If your allowed upload the wb and id be more than happy to try it on out on our server tomorrow?