disappearing save button

[craigp]

Hi brains trust and thanks in advance if anyone is able to help.. I have a dilemma with a template that I have created in excel. Basically I have made a purchase order template that will be loaded onto a server and each time it is opened it generates a new purchase order number to be used. This works fine if the template is opened and closed, however once a copy of the template is "saved as", the original template does not save with the new purchase order number and on opening next time, the same number will be present. I have worked out that if I save the template immediately upon opening, that it will work correctly once a copy of an edited version is saved. However, this may be confusing for some people and if they forget to save on opening, I will end up with 2 purchase orders with the same number.
I believe I have 2 options to deal with this issue but I am not sure if they can be done.
Firstly, if my template can be autosaved on opening, this would allow me to save an edited copy and the template would open fine the next time with a new number.
The other option would be to have a button that would save the template when being pressed. The button would either have to disappear once pressed or the button would need to stop editing and lock the worksheet until it was pressed.
Are any of these options possible.

 

[6StringJazzer]

Either of your proposed options can be done, but I'm not sure how those options address your problem statement. I would recommend VBA to save the master template as soon as a new PO number is generated. I don't think you want to force the user to save the file by pressing a button, because it's more complicated and it wouldn't make sense to the user why they are doing it.

What do you do if a user opens the template, then decides not to generate a new PO after all? Then you have created a new PO number that won't be used.

Where is the template stored and how does the user access it? What is to prevent the user from making a local copy of the template and working on that, rather than updating your authoritative master?

How is the purchase order number created in the template?