When working in Excel, sometimes we have external data sources.
In Windows, these files may be stored in a specific location such as C:\Users\Freelensia\Dropbox\data source.xls
When sharing the main file and the data source file with another person through file-sharing services such as Dropbox, the location of the data source will be changed to:
C:\Users\PeterSmith\Dropbox\data source.xls
(from the view of the Peter Smith user)
This will break the data connection in the main file when Peter opens it. He can reset the path to the one as seen from his computer, but that will break the connection for the Freelensia user when he/she opens it from his/her end.
Is there a way to permanently fix these locations for multiple users? Such that Excel will correctly get the path when the right user opens it.
I am looking for an inherent Excel property if such a thing exists. Else VBA macros (A table with the file paths for each user, and MsgBox that ask the user to choose the user profile). Else a Windows .bat file could work as well.
Thank you for your help.
A trick to this is to move your Dropbox to C:\Dropbox for all users.
To do that, click on the Dropbox icon at the bottom-right, click the Gear Icon, Settings, Sync Tab, then you can move the folder to C:\Dropbox.
If you encounter permission errors, follow the instructions here to reset the permissions:
https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/move-dropbox-folder
If my understanding is right when ever a different user opens/saves a file the path "C:\Users\xxxxxxx\Dropbox\data source.xls" will be same only "xxxxxxx" in the path will be varying with the active user who has logged in.
So use "Application.UserName" function to get the username and use it in the path mentioned above
Excel uses relative links, even though it shows longer paths in the cells when you look at them. This ends up meaning that if you move the file and the file(s) it is connecting to a different location then the links will still work.
If you put your main file in Dropbox\Excel\main.xlsx and then your data sources in Dropbox\Excel\Data\data sources.xlsx then I think you should be good.
I tested this with Google Drive on two different computers, taking turns opening and modifying the data source and also opening and having the main file update without any issues.
I am not positive if this would work for you in Dropbox, but I really think it should... I am using Excel 2010, so if you are using Excel 2003 (or saving files as .xls instead of the newer .xlsx format) there is a possibility that could cause issues.
Related
So we have our local website to navigate through our drive :
showcase of the website
Here, each button is a link to something on our drive
One of which is a link to a Excel file :
showcase of that specific link
Now, that Excel file contains relative links to PDFs : Relative links inside an Excel
If we click on that button linked to that Excel file from Edge (2nd screen), a prompt appears asking if we want to "Open" the file or "Save as", but the issue is... if we choose "Save as", obviously the links inside that Excel file wont work (unless we save it at the same location), so that's totally normal, the correct option would be to "Open" it.
The problem is that opening a file from Edge... actually doesn't open a file at all, it saves it locally under the AppData path of our machine and THEN opens it.
That means even in that case, the paths inside our Excel file wont work either because they are relative.
I know one solution would be to change all links to absolute links inside that Excel file, but that is a tedious work (because there are a LOT of links, we would have to create a script or something to do that).
So my question is, is there any way to directly open that Excel file from the path specified in the button's link, instead of saving it first locally under "C:\Users\XX\AppData\Local\Temp\MicrosoftEdgeDownloads\f02875af-f436-47bb-b7e5-f3caa96df03f" ?
This is not an issue when using Internet Explorer.
Thank you in advance for any help.
Kind regards,
If you want to allow intranet zone file URL links from Microsoft Edge to open in Windows File Explorer, you can try this Edge policy: IntranetFileLinksEnabled.
Otherwise I don't recommend you to do this, based on the security issues already mentioned.
I made a workbook with VBA which is stored at shared folder of my employer. Employees can open this folder and workbook, but only as read-only.
User at this workbook works with several macros and I need to count number of starts these macros and store this data somewhere. In the best way, it will be stored in the workbook itself. But they do not have rights to modify the workbook, so they cannot save it even if I will try do it automatically as part of macro.
So what I need, is to find a way, how to make this workbook self editing (or auto-saving).
I found two possible ways, but they do not work at this scenario:
Because the file is opened just in read-only mode, I cannot save it directly. I even cannot use save-as and rewrite that file, because I haven't rights to editing it in that folder.
I found a way, where is new document in PC repository and the workbook saves data in that file and this file must be saved somewhere, where it could be editable. But I do not know networking enough to find a save place where I will make this file and even more, I am not sure, how will HQ looks at this type of activity.
I would prefer to count it in the file, but from MS support I get, that I cannot save it, just rewrite, which is impossible if I have not rights for that. So my question is, is there any save way how to count it or store data somewhere else?
As far as I know, without getting write-permissions fixed for your users, it can't be done. You should work with your network administrator to explain your requirements for the users.
Alternatively, you need to find a place where every user DOES have write-access, then design the script to save-as to that location. It all comes down to permissions.
I encountered this weird ass and funny error.
I built a file for data ETL. This one takes in various .csv files, combines them and export new .csv files using VBA. The file is originally named as "xxx Modelling ETL.xlsm". It could be opened normally till one day it hangs or crashes while trying to recalculating something (may be the underground query).
After hours of struggling, I opened the file as a copy (under a new name of Copy of ...). Strangely it ran smoothly, no crash or hang. Then I try rename it by remove the "Copy of" part, then the error occurs again.
I want to share this as there could be someone has the same problem, or someone who could shed some light on this black magic thing.
Some solutions:
Rename the file or move it to local drive instead of Onedrive makes thing works normally again.
Open Trust Center, disable Macro with notification, Trusted Locations, and Trusted Documents. Enable them for specific files when open, not for all.
Does anyone know a way to recover changes made in a .csv that were not saved when excel 2007 was closed.
At the moment, I don't see any way to solve this.
Check all the temporary files created recently. Especially alongside the file you opened. There are a few temp folders in the system that Excel may use. C:\Windows\temp is the main one, but it is usually under the Users folder in later versions of windows. Eg: C:\Users\YourUserName\Local Settings\Temp
If you find any files that look like Excel temps, take a copy and rename the extension and then try to open it.
(Your only real chance is if auto-save kicked in and saved a copy - to a temp file - when you still had your new changes in the document. Otherwise the changes are lost I'm afraid)
If option #1 doesn't resolve your problem in Excel, go to File->Options->Save. Hopefully your AutoRecover file location, under the third box, will be populated with an address.
This issue only happens to a few client PCs, not all of client PCs. And I think this should be related to client PC's configuration/setting. WHoever logins to the PC gets the same exact issue.
We have an application which uploads files to SharePoint folders. The first Excel or PowerPoint file from SP folder are read-only and cannot be edited. I have tried many things and facts/results are as follows:
Monitored Content.MSO and all files are removed correctly after closed;
This issue only happens to the first XlSX/PPT file under SP folder. The second file or following will not have the issue;
There is a temporary file created under one of folders under Content.IE5. When the issue happens (the excel file is read-only), I can still edit the temporary file under Content.IE5 (add new row etc.) and save successfully. But for the second file under SP folder, I cannot edit Temporary file under Content.IE5 (locked by another name). Looks like when issue happens, the excel file is not really tie to the temporary file folder;
I tried to uninstall IE8 and re-installed IE8 (turn off from Microsoft then turn on), no difference;
I checked OWSSUPP.DLL and only one found under office14;
I tried deleting all files under Content.IE5 and Content.MSO, no difference;
Once the first file is opened and closed without saving (read-only, not able to save), next time the file is able to edit (there will be Edit Workbook button and Read-only on top of screen (read-only from server);
I tried Paul Liebrand's methods and could not find an entry called CacheFolderID from register. Here is Paul's solution:
http://paulliebrand.com/2010/04/12/document-is-locked-for-editing-part-2/
I have struggled with the issue for a few days and seems could not find a reason.
Thanks a lot.
Try to checkout the file manually and open the file, because if its not checkout then normally the file is readonly, so its not editable. by doing this default from sharepoint from system account, from the
document library options
Settings > Document library settings > General settings (under catgery)Version settings > "Require documents to be checked out before they can be edited?" choose option "Yes".
After sharepoint do automatically checkout when user click the file (word, excel, etc..).