Q&A

Several of my co-workers and I opened the same workbook file at the same time. Why couldn't we see each other's changes?

When more than one person opens the same file, the file is opened in read-only format by all but the first person who opened it. In effect, the read-only files are copies of the file. Changes made to the read-only copies cannot be saved to the same filename as the original file.

I created an Excel file in the office. The filename appeared on the list of the last four files I opened, but Excel couldn't open it when I took my laptop home. Why?

If you save a file on a network drive, you must be logged in or connected to the network to open it. To work at home, you need to save a copy of the file to a floppy disk. You can copy the file to your local hard drive from the disk. Then you can open the file locally.

I deleted a worksheet that I thought was meaningless, and now some of the other worksheets are showing up with funny characters. What's wrong?

You have a big problem! The cells in the worksheet you deleted were referenced in other worksheets. Unfortunately, when you delete a worksheet, it's gone for good. If you're working on a network, ask your network administrator whether you can retrieve an older copy of the file from the network backup.