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Opening an excel file with a linked tab omits the banner with the check out button RRS feed

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    We are experiencing an issue with certain Excel files in our SharePoint 2007 environment. When opening up an Excel file from SharePoint, there is banner under the excel toolbar ribbon that provides the option to “Check-out” the file.  The banner has the words “Server Workbook” and “To modify this workbook, you must check it out”, and a button that says “Check-Out.”  The problem is: when opening Excel files that contain a linked data connection to SharePoint, the “Check-out” banner does not show up.  There is no indication that the file is read-only.  Users get very surprised after making edits and trying to save the files, as they are only then informed that the document is read-only.  This leads to the annoying process of saving a copy locally, going back to the library, checking the document out, and uploading the saved document overwriting the one in the library.

    This occurs with .xlsx files for both Windows 7 and XP users.  The problem is caused by an embedded data connection to a SharePoint list in the Excel file.  If the Excel worksheet containing the connected data is removed from the file, the Excel files acts normally and the “Check-out” banner appears.  The problem does not resolve if only the connection is removed (Data > Connections > Remove) – it appears you have to remove the entire Excel worksheet containing the connected data in order to have the “Check-out” banner appear.  If you add the embedded data connection worksheet back in, and the banner disappears.

    Is there a fix for this?  Thanks,

    -Richard.

    Monday, April 15, 2013 9:40 PM

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    Hi,

    Thank you for your post.

    I'm trying to involve someone familiar with this topic to further look at this issue.

    Thanks & Regards,
    Emir Liu
    TechNet Subscriber Support in forum
    If you have any feedback on our support, please click here.

    Emir Liu
    TechNet Community Support

    Tuesday, April 16, 2013 6:33 AM
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    Hello Richard,

    I checked into this, I do know of a similar known issue with Read Only XLS files with data connections not showing the yellow message "Server read Only", per update I have, this got fixed around Jan 2013 and the earliest CU this should be available in is Feb2013 CU (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2767793). If you want the smallest individual hotfix it this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2553436/en-us (the KB talks about a different issue but that EXE has fix for this XLS issue too).. Note that we do not recommend installing individual hotfix on Production environments. Even for CUs we recommend testing on identical test environments before installing on Production machines. Unless you have identified any known compatibility issues of a CU with your environment (test) we should always prefer CU to an individfual hotfix.

    Let us know if this patch fixes the issue.

    Regards,

    Sukesh.

    Thursday, April 18, 2013 11:09 AM