Mark-
Like you, I ran into this problem, and here's what I found:
THis is a closely guarded secret- NOBODY has posted anything
I can find on the subject.
The sutuation was that there was a shared Excel spreadsheet on an NT 4.0
shared drive, and whenever anyone tried to open it, he got that
'<file>.xls is locked for editing by <user>' message.
The bad part was that <user> DIDN'T have the file open.
Here's what I did (you have to have administrator privileges to do it, so contact your I.T. guy):
There's a way to open the file manager (remember the file manager?)
under NT 4.0 Find and execute WINFILE.EXE (it should be in C:\winnt\system32).
Once it starts, select the problem file, then go to the file menu, and select properties.
A dialog box will open, and there will be a button marked, 'Open by...'
When you click on the 'Open by...' button, a dialog will pop up which lists the owners of
the present locks and transactions on the file.
THIS IS IMPORTANT!: Go and find the user, and make SURE he/she is NOT editing the file on
ANY MACHINE. If he/she is, have him/her close it.
If (AND ONLY IF) the user isn't editing the file, select the lock list and then click
the 'Close Selected' button. A warning window will pop up.
If you are SURE that this is waht you want, click OK, then OK in the properties window, and you're done.
Hope this helps...