I have a bit of a predicament that we've been unable to resolve. We have a PowerPoint presentation which includes active links to several excel sheets (used to display charts and data in the presentation). The issue is that when we have one of the spreadsheets open elsewhere on the LAN PowerPoint is pausing the presentation and prompting that the file is locked for editing and giving the option to continue loading the file as Read Only. The presentation runs on a loop, updating data on each revolution, and when the prompt is displayed we actually have to unlock a cabinet to gain access to the mouse. If we tell it to continue as Read Only everything continues just fine.

What I have been trying to come up with is a means of telling PowerPoint to just handle all of these external links as Read Only (all we're doing is reading anyway).

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle this issue?