Thanks, that is a great idea and almost works. It is less than ideal because
this warning will appear regardless of the read-only/read-write status of the
file. There are constant changes being made to the file by multiple people
so this warning would come up all the time even in read-write and be
cumbersome. (for various reasons we can't use sharing, so people are always
switching in and out of read-only, and only one person at a time is
read-write. so, you can see how easy it is for someone to forget they are in
read-only and make changes).

"Ron Coderre" wrote:

Try this:
Select the range from A1 thru the last cell most likely to be changed.

DataValidation
Allow: Custom
Formula: =ISBLANK(A1)

Select the Error Alert tab
Style: Warning
Title: REMINDER
Error Message: This workbook is read only
Click [OK]

That way....every time they try to change a cell, they are warned that the
wkbk is read-only.

Does that help?

***********
Regards,
Ron

XL2002, WinXP-Pro


"nathan" wrote:

It's a long story but "protection" can't be used.

"Bart Snel" wrote:

nathan schreef:
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to create some sort of obvious
indicator/reminder (other than on the Excel window header) that states that a
workbook is currently in "read-only" mode? The idea is to prevent someone
from forgetting that the file is "read-only", making a bunch of changes to
it, only to later realize that their work can't be saved (without doing a
"save as" a different file name). i.e. a message window that appears when
typing?? watermark?? etc etc??

Thanks.
I's suggest to protect the worksheet. In that case users cannot edit
without unprotecting.

Bart Snel