Excel - Noting the Workbook Creation Date

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Excel - Opening a Workbook as Read-Only

There may be times when you want to open a workbook as read-only. 

This means you will not be able to save any changes to the workbook you are loading. 

You can use the Save As option from the File menu in order to save the workbook using a different filename, however. 

Opening a workbook as read-only is self-insurance so you don't inadvertently mess up your file. To open a workbook as read-only, follow these steps:

1. Press Ctrl+O to display the Open dialog box. (In Excel 2013 you'll need to not only press Ctrl+O, but then click Computer and then Browse.)
2. Locate the workbook you want to open and then click once on the filename.
3. Click the down-arrow at the right side of the Open button. Excel displays a list of different ways you can open the workbook.
4. Choose Open Read-Only from the options in the drop-down list.

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Excel - Merging Many Workbooks

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Excel - Noting When a Workbook was Changed

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Excel - Opening a Workbook to a Specific Worksheet

Steve wonders if it is possible to somehow configure a workbook so that it opens on the same worksheet tab each time it is opened, rather than on the worksheet tab that was displayed when the workbook was last saved. The short answer is that you can do this—provided you use a macro. (There is no way to do it without a macro.)

There are two ways you can set up your macro. First, you can use a traditional Auto_Open macro that is automatically run whenever a workbook is opened:

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Excel - Discovering Dependent Workbooks

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Excel - Duplicate Workbooks Opening

Clair has a problem with one of her Excel workbooks: When she opens it, Excel always "replicates" the workbook. Once opened, Clair reports that she has two workbooks showing in the task bar. Both contain the proper workbook name, but one is followed by a 1 and the other followed by a 2.

Believe it or not, this problem is actually a feature of Excel. What you are seeing is two windows, both open on the same workbook. Excel allows you to create multiple windows on the same workbook by displaying the View tab of the ribbon and clicking the New Window tool. Each new window has the same name, except they have a suffix consisting of a colon and a number that indicates the window number (1, 2, 3, etc.).

When you save a workbook that has multiple windows, the next time you open the workbook it will display the same number of windows. If you want to get rid of some of the windows, you need to close them. You do this by clicking the Close Window control. (This is the X at the upper-right corner of the worksheet, not at the upper-right of the program window. It is black, not red, although it should be just below the red X. If you hover the mouse pointer over it, you'll see the ToolTip "Close Window" appear.)

Once you close any windows you don't want, save the workbook again. The next time you open it, you should see only a single window.

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Excel - Excel Not Responding

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Excel - Making Changes in a Group of Workbooks

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Excel - Forcing a Workbook to Close after Inactivity

These three routines are fairly straightforward. The first two respectively turn on the timer and turn it off. Note that these routines utilize the DownTime variable, which is declared outside of any of the routines. In this way its contents can be utilized in multiple routines.

The third routine, ShutDown, is the one that actually closes the workbook. It is only invoked if the OnTime method expires, at the end of an hour. It closes the workbook without saving any changes that may have been made.

The next routines (there are four of them) need to be added to the ThisWorkbook object. Open the VBA Editor and double-click on the ThisWorkbook object in the Project Explorer. In the code window that Excel opens, place these routines:

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Excel - Changing Links

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