How to open a Read-Only copy of files?

We operate a small business with 6 people, all using Win2000 Pro.. We all refer to a couple of Excel files frequently, stored on a server running NT4 Workstation. Everybody has full rights to those files. As a rule, we let one person do all the changes on these files, and the rest of us just read from them.

To simplify things, I want to create a shortcut to open a READ-ONLY copy of the file. How to do this? I tried "/r" but it does not help.

 

Why not just change the securities on the files to allow only the person you want to make changes full access to the files and everyone else read-only.

 

Kevin,
Looks good. I was an old DOS-head and I kept trying command switches, etc. Your idea seems a bit complicated but it works! Thanks!
GG.