What are the general guidelines around using Modano files on SharePoint/Teams? We are moving our directory to be saved on Teams and synced to Explorer but I've noticed for instance that linked workbooks (Modano linked) cannot be saved on SharePoint. I have also had instances where merging of changes if multiple people are in the file won't sync upon save. If I am the only user of a file I have no issues at all.
Hi Tarjei,
This is a murky area, as we generally support opening standalone Modano files directly out of SharePoint and saving them back into teams, but some users have experienced issues doing this.
As you note, we don't currently allow directly saving linked workbooks into SharePoint or Teams, because we've had many instances of users experiencing broken links as a result of this, and we've never really had an issue with keeping things local.
Hence, as a general rule, we simply recommend working from your local synced folders and letting Windows Explorer handle the syncing of SharePoint in the background. We've done this internally for the past decade and never had an issues. Here's some good resources from Microsoft about this:
If you're not using linked workbooks, you should be able to open and save files from/to SharePoint directly too. We also have no issues doing this but it's not our default way of operating.
Regarding co-authoring, changes to workbooks made using automation (i.e. Modano) are not supported by co-authoring. Hence, if you want to co-author, we recommend making your models Excel Online compatible (which basically means removing controls and any other content not supported by Excel Online) and then co-authoring in Excel Online - i.e. in the browser.
In a dream world you could co-author develop models, but in reality we've found co-authoring is primarily valuable for facilitating the entry of assumptions by multiple people, and this is supported well by Excel Online.
The same general comments apply to Teams, although we generally avoid using Excel files within Teams. I'd be interested to hear your use case for this...
Michael
Hey Tarjei,
Second Michael's comment above. We've been using SharePoint for years now and have not had issues with file sync.
We do have some clients that have the Excel Online version of files that Michael mentions. These ones we will co-author with them in monthly discussions.
It all works quite smoothly to be honest. Also, SharePoint side was actually relatively easy to setup as well.
Jun
Thanks you both for replying.
I have only just discovered the "Sync" button in Team/SharePoint and it's certainly a game changer - we must be very behind the times (no surprise there!).
I have found it works fine EXCEPT for instances where I open a file someone is already in and try to save it. For these cases I get an error message in the OneDrive dialog box saying the files can't be merged and I have to save a desktop copy. Have anyone else experienced this and also, is there a way to prevent other users from making changes unless they open the file first (much like in normal Office files where it will by default open as a read only file for all users except the first one)?
T