Locking a file in Windows 2k

[Guest valerio.donati]

Hi, i have this problem:

i have a network shared folder containing some office files (xls, doc). These files are shared among 5 users that open them and work on them regularily. Sometimes, these users have to go out of the office and have to connect to the network using gprs-vpn, and if they need to open those files, they copy them in their machines leaving the original ones on the server (so that they can disconnect the gprs connection and reconnect again only when they need to copy the updated file back on the server). The problem is that i want the file to be locked (or better: read-only) for all the time until the file is copied back on the server. I tried to change the save settings (disabling the auto-save feature) on MS Office configuration and it seemed to work fine (i opened the file on-line then disconnected - the file was read-only as if i was connected but only for 10 minutes! After that, the file was RW again...).

Is there a way to do this in Windows/Office or with any other external application?

Thank you very much,

Valerio Donati

[scuzzman]

Right-click the files, go to Properties.

At the bottom, check "Read-only"

[Guest valerio.donati]

Thanks for the quick reply scuzzman.

Actually, all the users have the same access rights for that folder (they would be able to change back the attributes of the file and access it)

[scuzzman]

That's correct. You'll need to change the ownership of the file then to a restricted owner, and explicitly remove write access.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...;308421&sd=tech

[Guest valerio.donati]

All the users should have the same access rights. i want to avoid that a file is accessed and updated when it's already accessed (and under update) by another user. that's why i can't assign the ownership only to a single user.

[scuzzman]

I hope someone else has some ideas then because I'm out...

But for the record, I'm not so sure it's possible unless you make specific times someone can do their edits.

[scuzzman]

You might look into a CVS type system: http://www.gnu.org/software/cvs/

This is primarily used for source code... but it might work.

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

If your users only update the original documents on the shared folder, then the documents are automatically protected while they are updated.

But if users indeed copy them, and later move the updated versions back, then you need a system that lets users check-out documents, and protect the originals while they are checked out.

This is the same system that is used by software developers, where multiple users check-out source code, then check back in the altered source. More sophisticated systems even let multiple users check-out source, then merge the changes on check-in.

Check scuzzman's suggestion in the previous post; this may be your solution.

[Guest valerio.donati]

After some testing I can say that this software fits my needs!

Thanks a lot