Solved: open as read only

[philfer]

Hello,

I know how to open a file as read only using the "open" dialog box i.e the arrow on the open button allows you to select to open it as read only

Is there a way to do this from my documents. i.e. I want to open someone else's file to do some testing etc on it. I normally have the "mydocuments" window open (in real life it is the shared drive but it looks the same) and want to open it as read only from there (so I dont mess up there file). They havent set it to prompt for read only but I want to open it as read only nonetheless

(could I have fitted the phrase read-only into this thread any more!!!)

Cheers
Phil

[GTO]

Greetings Phil,

Rather than using Windows Explorer or My Documents, simply open the doc, wb etc thru the application. For instance, if you open Excel first, and use File | Open, after selecting the file (workbook) in the fileopen dialog, click on the little down arrow on the <Open> button.

Nifty, eh?

Mark

[GTO]

PS - just noticed another thread by you. Lots of folks do not have 2007. So when possible, you might want to save an example wb in the .xls format, as this allows more folks to be able to view it, and hence, may get you additional help...

Mark

[philfer]

thanks for that Mark but with all due respect I already knew about the arrow on the open button as I mentioned it in the original post

is there anyway that anyone can think of to do the same thing through the Explorer or MyDocuments wondows

Cheers

[GTO]

Hi Phil,

Well goodness, you have my humble apologies. I just re-read your first post, and you certainly were clear in your very first sentence. Sorry about that. BTW, my 'nifty, eh' comment was not intended to be facetious at all, as I do think this is a nifty feature.

As to opening read-only thru Windows Explorer, I learn a lot here almost daily (and maybe this will be such an occassion if a more learned member will give a better or different explanation), but in my own, albeit simple terms, I don't think this is possible.

When opening or running a file from a window (Explorer), I believe that basically two things happen: (1) a check to see if the associated application is running. (2) [a] Create a instance of the app if an instance does not exist and [b] Open/run the file/workbook in the running or created instance of the associated application. This of course does not include the option of "Open With".

Anyways, I don't think that Explorer checks the various applications' individual capabilities, such as Word/Excel's open read-only option.

Again, sorry I read through your question in such a poor manner, and cheers as well,

Mark

[georgiboy]

I know you say from explorer/my docs (i also am not sure this is possible) but can you not just use something like

Workbooks.Open Filename:= "Blah blah blah", UpdateLinks:=3, ReadOnly:=1

[Demosthine]

Good Evening.

Thanks to GTO for throwing another problem at me that gets my gears going. And sometimes a solution just nags at me so that I have to find a solution.

I knew up front that Word is a very powerful application and Microsoft is very big on having their applications so that they are very versatile. At first, I thought it would just be a command line switch that is passed as an argument. I was partly correct.

The final solution was the use of DDE or Dynamic Data Exchange.

In Windows Vista, the File Type tab of the Folders Option is no longer available, so for those who are using Vista or XP, this method should work. Please note, this involves editing the Registry and you should always back up your registry before making changes.

1.) Open the Registry Editor.
a.) Start | Run | RegEdit.Exe
2.) Open the following Keys.
a.) Computer
b.) HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
c.) Word.Document.8
d.) Shell
3.) Edit or Right-Click | New Key...
Open As Read Only
4.) Change (Default)...
Open &As Read-Only
5.) New Key...
Command
6.) Change (Default)...
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\WINWORD.EXE" /x /n /dde
7.) New Multi-String Value...
Command
8.) Set Value Data to:
']gAVn-}f(ZXfeAR6.jiWORDFiles>P`os,1@SW=P7v6GPl]Xh /x /n /dde
vUpAVX!!!!!!!!!MKKSkWORDFiles>tW{~$4Q]c@5d1`,xaTO5 /x /n /dde
9.) From Open As Read Only Key | New Key...
DDEExec
10.) Change (Default)...
[FileOpen ("""%1"""),.ReadOnly]
11.) New Key...
Application
12.) Change (Default)...
WinWord
13.) From DDEExect | New Key...
Topic
14.) Change (Default)...
System

Close the Registry Editor and test your changes.


For simplicity sake, I've attached an Export of the changes to the Registry. Open the Zip File and open the file titled 'OpenAsReadOnly.reg'. Your Zip Program may tell you it is dangerous to open this type of file. It will tell you that the Key and values contained were added. Test the solution.


References:
Microsoft Developer's Network: Knowledge Base Q210565

Good Luck!
Scott