I have a user who put a password on the spreadsheet. When most users open it,
it prompts them for a password and provides a "Read only" button. She wants
everyone else to have read-only access but a few she has shared the password
with. When one of our users opens the file it never prompts her for a
password, it just opens up. She cannot save any changes, so it must be
read-only for her, but they want the pop-up to show. Any suggestions.

If that workbook is saved on a network share and the user doesn't have write
access to that folder, then excel/windows is smart enough to open the workbook
without giving the option prompt.

In fact, it won't be an option--the user can only open it in readonly mode. So
I guess MS figured that it was a waste of time to display even an information
prompt.

You could have a macro that runs when the workbook is opened that gives a prompt
to the user--but each user who opens the workbook in readonly mode will get the
message--even if they passed through the prompt.

Is that ok?

If yes, you can use a macro like:

Option Explicit
Sub auto_open()

With ThisWorkbook
If .ReadOnly = True Then
MsgBox "Opened in ReadOnly Mode--changes cannot be saved!"
End If
End With

End Sub

If you're new to macros, you may want to read David McRitchie's intro at:
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/getstarted.htm

JHL2 wrote:

I have a user who put a password on the spreadsheet. When most users open it,
it prompts them for a password and provides a "Read only" button. She wants
everyone else to have read-only access but a few she has shared the password
with. When one of our users opens the file it never prompts her for a
password, it just opens up. She cannot save any changes, so it must be
read-only for her, but they want the pop-up to show. Any suggestions.

--

Dave Peterson