Read-only and Saving

[kenjohnson_342]

I've gotta be missing something silly so I feel stupid, but here is what I'm trying to accomplish:

Master file saved on my hard-drive. I save a copy to a Shared folder on our server for other people to use. I want them to be able to make changes to extract the data they need, but I don't want them to be able to save their changes.

I know I can password protect the Write/Modify rights and recommend they open as Read-Only. But I don't want to have to explain a hundred times that each person does not have a password and they need to click the read only box.

Is there a way I can save this file so they automatically open in a way that they cannot save changes without prompts or popup boxes?

Thanks.

 

[ogo]

Now this seems really tricky, i think what you can do is open the workbook with macro disabled then add below code in workbook section

Private Sub Workbook_BeforeSave (ByVal SaveAsUI As Boolean, Cancel As Boolean) 
    '  Following line will prevent all saving
    Cancel = True
    '  Following line will prevent the Save As Dialog box from showing
    If SaveAsUI then SaveAsUI = False
End Sub

Then save the file and reopen with macro enabled and test if the code works,
Also you need to force your workbook users to enable macros. This is also possible with macros.