Problems Opening or Saving Workbooks

Excel takes a long time to open or save a specific workbook When an Exel file is double-clicked in Outlook,nothing happens Getting message that displays "File is locked for editing" How to password protect an Excel File

Excel takes a long time to open or save a specific workbook

Problem: Client saves a workbook and it takes an unusually long time to save. – OR – Opening a workbook takes a long time.

Resolution: This problem can occur for several reasons:

Scenario #1: File is saved in a version other than Excel 2000
(1) Click on File then Save As
(2) Check the version in the Save as Type drop down box. Files that are saved in Excel 97/2000 or other older versions take longer to save and open than regular Excel 2000 files.

Scenario #2: Large file with a lot of formulas
(1) Click on Tools and then Options
(2) Click on the Calculation tab
(3) Make sure that Calculation is set to Manual. If it’s set to Automatic, this slows down Excel because it needs to recalculate every formula when the file is opened and saved.
(4) Click on OK.

When an Excel file is double-clicked in Outlook, nothing happens

Problem: A client double-clicks on an Excel attachment and either nothing happens or Excel opens but the file doesn’t show up.

Resolution: This problem can be resolved one of two ways.

Method 1: Incorrect File Association
(1) Open My Computer.
(2) Click on View and then select Options (or Folder Options).
(3) Click on the File Types tab.
(4) Scroll down and select the “Microsoft Excel Worksheet” file type.
(5) In the lower left portion of the window, make sure that it opens with “Excel” and not some other problem.
(6) If it says anything other Excel or is blank, then the file association is incorrect and needs to be corrected.
a. Click on the Edit button.
b. Double-click on Open.
c. In the Application used to perform action field, make sure that you have the path for EXCEL.EXE. Click on Browse if necessary and find the file. It is usually in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office folder
d. Click on OK three times and try again.

Method 2: Excel has Ignore Other Applications checked
(1) Open Excel
(2) Click on Tools, select Options and then click the General tab.
(3) Under Settings, makes sure that Ignore other applications is unchecked.
(4) Click on OK.

Getting message displaying “File is locked for editing”

Problem: Client gets error message when trying to open up an Excel file.

Resolution: If the file is located on the network, find out the UNC location and notify LAN third level so that they can tell who has the file open. If the file is located on their local hard drive, file might be hung up and they will need to reboot the PC.

How to password protect an Excel file

In order to password protect an Excel file, do the following:

(1) Click on File and select Save As.
(2) In the Save As window, click on Tools and select General Options.
(3) The following window will appear:
(4) Information about passwords: Passwords are stored within the file internally, which means that if a password is forgotten it cannot be recovered! Also passwords are case-sensitive.
(5) Click on OK and the file is not password-protected.