Alan,
You can Share a workbook amongst a number of users.
Check out "collaboration" in the help.
However, there are then various restrictions imposed, so you should read up
on the consequences.
There are "discussions" also but never used them.

NickHK

"Alan" wrote in message
...
Hi All,
I have a file on the public drive of a company system that several users
in
different locations need to update on a regular basis.
These people are highly skilled in their own fields (Hands-On Engineers),
but not too computer literate.
Obviously if one of them goes into the file and another one is already in
it, the message 'This file is locked for editing by . . . Open as read
only'
appears, but on several occasions they have just gone on through the 'Save
As' prompt and saved a copy in the same folder which is of no use as of
course the original file remains unchanged.
I've got round it with the code below, which works to a degree, but the XL
message with regard to 'This file is read only, do you want to save a
copy'
still appears before the message box, which is untidy.
The DisplayAlerts application does not seem suppress it. Is there a way to
do so, or is this a hard and fast message like the 'Enable Macro's' on
opening a file that cannot be overcome?
Any advice very welcome,
Regards,
Alan.

Private Sub Workbook_BeforeSave(ByVal SaveAsUI As Boolean, Cancel As
Boolean)
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
If ThisWorkbook.ReadOnly Then
MsgBox "Message to the user..........", etc,etc
Application.DisplayAlerts = True
Cancel = True
End If
End Sub