# Solved: Excel File stuck as Read-Only



## Unusual (Jan 22, 2009)

Hi All

I am new to Office 2007 and have a frustrating problem that is really bugging.

I was playing around with the digital signatures functionality in Excel and a file I was working on ended up being made Read-Only. I cant seem to change this back to Read-write and in the properties of the file it is not even ticked as read write. The instructions provided say that i should enable editing and then save the file but i don't quite see what this means and where i do this.

Any help would be much appreciated!
Thnx


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

can you just save it as a different file name 
when you open the new file is that one read/write ?


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## Unusual (Jan 22, 2009)

Thanks etaf.

I tried that but the new file is also read only!


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## The Villan (Feb 20, 2006)

If you do Save as and just to the left of the Save button, click on the drop down icon fr Tools.
Select General Options and feed back what it says in that dialogue box


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## Unusual (Jan 22, 2009)

There is an unchecked option to Always create backup.
Under "File sharing" there is a blank text box to input a password to open and to modify.
There is also a blank check box with "Read only recommended"
Thnx


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## The Villan (Feb 20, 2006)

Open the document that contains the signature you want to remove.

Click the Microsoft Office Button, point to Prepare, and then click View Signatures.

In the Signatures task pane, point to the signature that you want to remove, click the arrow that appears on the right, and then click Remove Signature.

When you are asked if you want to permanently remove the signature, click Yes.

Your document should now be read/write


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## Unusual (Jan 22, 2009)

Unfortunately I tried that as well. The problem is that after clicking yes to permanently removing signatures I get a new message saying:
Signatures cannot be removed because this workbook was opened read-only!


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## The Villan (Feb 20, 2006)

Process of elimination

Click the Microsoft Office Button, point to Prepare, and then click Mark as Final.


Does that clear the read only, or does it do something else?


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## Unusual (Jan 22, 2009)

First it says that editing will invalidate the signatures and asks if you want to continue.

When i click on yes then it still remains Read-only but at least it allows me to type in the cells and then save the workbook as a new name which is a read-write file. So even though the original file is not fixed at least the copy file is fine... which is good enough for me.

Thnx a lot!


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## The Villan (Feb 20, 2006)

As you say, you have the file to work on again.

Its always very difficult to know exactly what you did and what you tweaked. So it has to be a trail and error process.

Glad we got somewhere.


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