Best practices for pulling data from a network Excel file (mult users)
 

I have an Excel file that will be distributed to several hundred users who
will all have access to the same network drive; I'd like to put some of my
source data lists (names, etc.) in another workbook on that network drive so
that if I need to update the source data lists, I can update just the one on
the network drive and have everyone's data (listboxes in a userform, etc) be
updated automatically. This is new for me, so I'm looking for suggestions
and hopefully some sample code snippets.

As some users may not always be hooked into the network, I'd hook to the
network drive workbook, and if it fails, capture/supress the error. If it
does hook in, I can do some stuff like copy the most recent version of the
data into the local workbook so that it can still be used offline the next
time it is needed.

I'm looking specifically for anything that might affect my ability to do
this- for example, each person's file should only hook into the network long
enough to copy the data then disconnect /or/ access that workbook as
read-only, so I don't have problems with the workbook being open when
someone else tries to access it. Can I force Excel to open a file as read
only, and if so, are there any limits on how many read-only copies of
"workbook X" can be open at the same time? Are there any other limitations
or problems with this approach that I should know about in advance?

I appreciate any help, suggestions, or code snippets you can provide....
Thanks,
Keith

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thoughts, views, or policy of my employer. Any errors or omissions are my
own.