When you save changes to a shared workbook in Microsoft Excel 97, changes
made to the same workbook by other users may be permanently lost.
This problem may occur when two or more people make changes to a shared
workbook that is stored on a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server.
To prevent this problem, store shared workbooks on a network server that
you access through either a network drive letter (such as E:) or through a
Universal Naming Convention (UNC) connection (such as \\myserver\share).
This behavior is by design of FTP servers and Microsoft Excel 97. Because
of the design of FTP servers, shared workbooks cannot be used correctly on
an FTP server.
In Excel 97, you can share a workbook so that multiple users can
simultaneously make changes to it. When you attempt to save the workbook,
if other users have made conflicting changes, a dialog box appears which
allows you to decide what changes you want to save.
Excel 97 determines whether multiple users have opened a shared workbook by
checking whether or not the server or computer that stores the workbook has
locked it. If the workbook is locked, Excel 97 checks for conflicts in the
shared workbook and allows you to resolve the conflicts before actually
saving changes to the shared workbook.
However, when you open a workbook that is stored on an FTP server, the FTP
server creates a copy of the workbook, and Excel opens the copy.
Because of this design, when you open a shared workbook that is stored on
an FTP server, the FTP server does not lock the workbook. Therefore Excel
97 is unable to determine when multiple users have opened the shared
workbook. As a result, changes saved to the workbook by one user are lost
when another user saves the same workbook.