vba Open excel when File is used by another user

Question

This is my current code

Public Sub OpenFiles()
    \'Set LiveDealSheet file path
    \'Check if LiveDealSheet is already open
    LDSP = \"C:\\Users\\DCHEUNG\\De         


        

Answer 1

I had the same issue and was helped somewhat by the existing posts, here. However, there was still a gap between the recommendations and reality. So, I'll try to share my lessons learned.

In my case, I needed Workbooks.Open to open the most recent file in a shared folder. This file is often referenced by other users and is therefore frequently open by other users. Below is my first pass to give the VBA code "permission" to open the file as "read only."

' OPEN SOURCE-FILE IN READ-ONLY MODE (argument key below)
Workbooks.Open _
    Filename:=strFilename, _
    UpdateLinks:=0, _
    ReadOnly:=True, _
    IgnoreReadOnlyRecommended:=True, _
    Notify:=True

This actually works EXCEPT for when excel creates a temporary file in the source folder (the temp file will, therefore, always be the newest file in the folder). To handle that exception, I needed to truncate the temp characters: "~$". I have done that with

Right([your_string], integer_length_of_string)

See in context below.

For Each objFile In myFolder.Files
    If InStr(1, objFile.Name, ".xlsm") And objFile.DateLastModified > dateFile Then
        dateFile = objFile.DateLastModified
        windowName = objFile.Name

            If InStr(1, windowName, "~$") Then
                fileNameLen = Len(objFile.Name) - 2
                windowName = Right(objFile.Name, fileNameLen)
                strFilename = myDir & "\" & windowName
            End If

        strFilename = myDir & "\" & windowName
    End If
Next objFile