Importing data from external source
 

I have a workbook that pulls data from 2 external sources
(a text file & excel file). Each external sources
populate a worksheet. Each worksheet is used to populate
a combobox on the main worksheet.

The text file is updated nightly. The excel file can be
updated thru out the day by users. Both of
these "external data sources" reside on a shared network
drive (Novell NetWare).

I have a few users for this workbook. A copy workbook
itself is saved locally on each user's workstation
(running win98/excel 2000 & win xp pro/excel 2002). This
was done so the workbook does not need to be shared.

Some problems, I am running into currently.
1.Although I have the external excel file set as shared.
Users are still receiving "file is locked for editing"
messages and unable to refresh the data source. I have 4
worksheets total in the workbook, but using =INFO
("numfile") returns 6.

2. When a user clicks the combo box tied to worksheet that
is updated by the excel file they receive an error,
stating not enough system resources to display
completely. But clicking Ok on the error, allows the user
to use the control & workbook normally. The combo box
tied to the worksheet that is updated by text file.. works
fine.

I was thinking that if I could populate the two worksheets
that depend on the external data dynamically (& disconnect
from external data sources), this should solve my
problems.

How would I do this with fixed width text file & excel
file? Should this resolve my issues?

Thanks
Mike