Two questions about opening Excel workbooks.

The operating system in Windows XP with Perl 5.8.8.
The following Perl code tries to open a spreadsheet and if successful opens a workbook.
$excel = Win32::OLE->new('Excel.Application', 'Quit') or ($excel_res =
+ 0, $ew_message = "Could not create excel bject");

print "[open_spreadsheet] after excel result <$excel_res> mess <$ew_me
+ssage>\n";

if($excel_res == 1) {

    $workbook = $excel->Workbooks->Open($hist_file)  or ($workbook_res
+ = 0, $ew_message = "Could not open excel workbook for <$hist_file>")
+;

    print "[open_spreadsheet] after workbook result <$workbook_res> me
+ss <$ew_message> for <$hist_file>\n";

}

[download]
I have a case where the workbook opening fails although the excel object worked.
To confuse matters this works on my system but not on another one.
I have been told that the spreadsheet was not open in another application such as Excel.
Can any one tell me how to find out what I wrong?
Are there any error codes available that may help?
I am reasonbly certain that the file is there but I will be checking more thoroughly.

On a more general point is there any way I can find out if a spreadsheet is open because it is being used by Excel?
The stat function gives a lot of data but not this bit.

In reply to Excel opening problems by merrymonk

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