XL7: MS Excel Appears to Hang Resolving Conflicts in Shared File (130046)

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Excel, if you receive the Conflict Resolution dialog box when you save a shared workbook, when you click the "Use All Remaining Changes From My Session" button or the "Use All Remaining Changes From The Other Session" button, the mouse pointer changes to the hourglass, and Microsoft Excel may appear to hang.

CAUSE

This behavior may occur when the changes you made to the shared file conflict with the changes saved in the same file by another user. The Conflict Resolution dialog box appears in this case, asking how you want to resolve the conflicts. If you click the "Use All Remaining Changes From My Session" button or the "Use All Remaining Changes From The Other Session" button, the conflicts are resolved without prompting you for each conflicting cell.

If there are many changes to resolve, this process can take a long time, a matter of minutes. If you choose one of the "Use All Remaining Changes" buttons, there is no indication that Microsoft Excel is processing any changes while the conflicts are being resolved. There is no dialog box or status bar to indicate the percentage of the process that is complete; and the Microsoft Excel window is not updated (no screen updates) as the conflicts are being resolved. Additionally, if you press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to display the Close Program dialog box, the text (Not responding) appears following the Microsoft Excel item in the list of programs.

RESOLUTION

To work around this behavior, switch to another application in Windows while Microsoft Excel resolves the conflicts in the workbook. Windows 95 allows you to work in an application while another application is processing in the background.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.