Accessing file via network drive vs \\compname\folder\

[General Crespin]

G'morning all,

We've got a computer acting as a file server, just running XP Pro, and all of the other computers on the network have its shared folder mapped as a network drive. Most of the files we access are spreadsheets and Word documents, but there's some images and other stuff too.

A number of spreadsheets are shared and we're mixed between Excel 2000 and Excel 2003.

My question is, does it make a difference if a person opens the file through P:\file and/or \\computer\folder\file, is it going to... confuse ... Excel, or will it be fine if some people have it open one way and some the other?

Thanks!

 

[Orinthical]

"The last person to edit the file before it is closed wins." generally applies. Because microsoft office uses change files in order to edit a file other changes may be saved as well. The general rule in quotes applies when two people edit the same area of the document.

It won't "confuse" Excel - however if you're using linked data sources your paths may get messed up, some would say p:\data\source1.mdb while others would say \\compname\share\data\source1.mdb.

 

[General Crespin]

I don't understand how that applies.

If a file is shared, and two people edit the same portion of the spreadsheet, when the second person saves, a dialogue will pop up showing the changes and asking which to accept.

 

[Orinthical]

I don't understand how that applies.

If a file is shared, and two people edit the same portion of the spreadsheet, when the second person saves, a dialogue will pop up showing the changes and asking which to accept.

The change management Microsoft has in place is good but it doesn't always work and assumes everyone is using Office. The data source linking will be your "hurdle" but if it's something you don't use, don't worry about it.

 

[General Crespin]

Thanks.