Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Who Has the File Open?.
Joe asked if there is a way to determine, in a macro, who has a particular workbook open. He thought about using the WriteReservedBy property, but it doesn't seem to have the information he needs.
Unfortunately, there is no way to determine this information from VBA—it just isn't accessible. The WriteReservedBy property doesn't show who has a file open; it shows who saved the workbook using a password. In other words, when someone saves a workbook with the option to have a password to modify it, the file is "WriteReserved." The WriteReservedBy property contains the name of the person that saved the file in the WriteReserved state.
If you only need to know the answer (about who has the file open) periodically, it is easiest to gather a list of the open file names, and ask the network admin to tell you who has them open—such information is maintained on the network and accessible to the admin.
Another potential solution is to add an AutoOpen macro to each workbook that writes a temporary file to disk that contains the name of the person opening the file. The macro would need to not only open the temporary file, but handle error conditions, such as a temporary file that is already open. The temporary file could then be accessed by other macros to see the name that it contains.
An additional place that may hold an answer is the VBNet site. The article at this page contains code that may be adaptable for the desired information:
http://vbnet.mvps.org/index.html?code/network/netfileenum.htm
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2492) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Who Has the File Open?.
Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!
If you use UNC paths in your links to external information, those paths may need to be changed at some point. You can ...
Discover MoreIf you need to combine the contents of a bunch of workbooks into a single workbook, the process can get tedious. Here's a ...
Discover MoreIf you use Excel to work with data exported from another program, you might be interested in a way to import a large ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2016-12-01 11:54:05
LinearD
Working for a large company, we have many people jumping into a file at any given time. This became frustrating when I was trying update the workbook connections and not being able to save it. So I wrote two macros; one to log the users details to a text file using ENVIRON$(), and another that loops every minute or so and checks for a file called "force-close.txt" that was stored in another location. I just create the file with the same name when I need to and it forces the user to save a copy and close the file. A little inefficiant, but does the job.
2015-01-27 12:20:29
Wyatt S
I have written a macro that tells you who is in an XLSX file. I wrote a post about it here: https://bizintelsolutions.wordpress.com/2015/01/26/who-is-in-excel-xlsx-file/
-Wyatt
2014-10-16 11:06:18
shantaram
Hi,
How do we know that if anyone else open my excel sheet & close it without saving.
so how do we find out this person ?
Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2022 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: 
Comments