Distributing Excel 2000 (with MS Query) template

[locutis]

Hello,
I have an Excel 2000 template that uses MS Query to pull data from several SQL Server 2000 views into a lookup sheet. The cells on this sheet are references on the display sheet. There will be several users accessing this template.

My questions are:

Is there any way to avoid having to install Excel 2000 (with the MS Query option) on each users machine?

Will I have to move the .dqy files to a central location? In my C:\Documents and Settings\xxxxxx\Application Data\Microsoft\Queries there are 1KB Microsoft Excel ODBC Query Files. Will these need to be moved?

Is it a problem for several users to access the same template at once? I know having done MS Access development in the past sometimes some strange locking conditions can occur.

If someone can advise me on the best approach to distribute this I would really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance,
Jean Luc

 

[Griffyn]

Yes, you will need to install Excel, unless... is there an Excel Viewer application available?

The .dqy files are not used once the query has been established in an Excel worksheet. This is one of the most annoying 'features' of Excel - An external data 'link' stores all of the data connection information within the worksheet, so changing the ODBC connection, or the query file you originally used to create the create won't have any effect on the Excel worksheet.

If the workbook you are distributing is to be read-only, then no there's no issues, otherwise yes you will have issues as only one user can have read/write access to a single workbook.

 

[CBasicAsslember]

MS has a Excel Viewer application. The templates should be in a public directory on a server.

Is it a problem for several users to access the same template at once?

The users create a new workbook from the templates. Unlike a xls file, the user just gets a copy of the template.

 

[SkipVought]

You will also need to configure an SQL ODBC driver on each machine.

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