Unfortunately, it depends on what you are doing and how Excel is set up. If Application.DisplayAlerts (this is VBA syntax) is false, Excel will open the file as read only without notifying the user. It may be possible to do this and then ask Excel if the file is read only, which, if the file was opened RW, might do the job - I hadn't previously thought of this, and will look into it (it's one in the morning, so not now!). If Application.DisplayAlerts is true, a dialogue box will appear, but I haven't found a way to intercept it and process the message. MerryMonk's node, Is an Excel spreadsheet open?, drew responses about how to tell if a single open instance of Excel has a file open, but as I said in that thread, what if someone has several instances of Excel open? I do, routinely. Therefore, I don't know of a better way within Excel/Perl than the "try to write" approach MerryMonk mentioned.

Many thanks, Marshall, for the link to the Handle download. I haven't previously hear of it, and I can see all sorts of applications. But, as you point out, it's not useful for applications for lowly users.

Regards,

John Davies