Resolved Excel File "is reserved by"... Need to remove!

Hi all,

I took over for a woman in my new job here. Years ago, in an unknown version of Excel, she created a worksheet listing all the usernames and passwords of people on the network. I know, it's dumb, and I'll get rid of all that eventually. But that's for later.

For now, what's happening is that each time I open this document (see screenshot attached), it tells me that "filename.xls is reserved by USER NAME "

The user it's referencing is the former employee. She never gave me the PW before leaving, but I figured it out, so I CAN open the document and edit it.

What I cannot seem to do, despite exhaustive Google searches and numerous attempts, is to remove any and all security or locking of this file.

This is not a huge deal since I do know the PW, but it's annoying to have to type it each time I open the file.

Can someone please help me with this? I am using Excel 2010. Thanks!

 

Hi Arie,

Did exactly what you suggested. Upon clicking "Encrypt with password ", the box had NO asterisked characters at all. So I just clicked OK and saved. Closed document. Re-opened, and it still wants a password. The old password is still needed.

:-(

 

OK, well like I said, it's not the worst thing in the world. Will just have to live with it. Thanks for the help!