Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Office 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Closing a Read-Only Workbook.
Gary has a read-only workbook that multiple users can access. They can modify cells but not save their work. On exiting the workbook, Gary wants Excel to just close without informing the user that it is read-only and giving them the option of saving a copy.
This is best accomplished by using a macro to modify the Saved flag in the workbook, just before closing. This flag indicates, internally, whether a workbook needs saving or not. If the flag is False, then Excel knows that the workbook has not been saved (changes have been made without saving). If your macro sets the flag to True, then Excel will close directly because it thinks that all the changes have been saved.
Here's what the macro should look like, at its simplest:
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Office 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: 
Private Sub Workbook_BeforeClose(Cancel As Boolean)
If ThisWorkbook.ReadOnly Then
ThisWorkbook.Saved = True
End If
End Sub
The macro should be added to the ThisWorkbook object in the VBA Editor. That way, it is automatically executed just before the workbook is closed. The flag is set to True, and when the macro ends, Excel continues with its normal closing procedures. Since Excel thinks that there are no unsaved changes, the user sees no message and the workbook is closed.
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (10349) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Office 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Closing a Read-Only Workbook.
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2016-06-09 14:00:32
Ken
How can I pause a macro?
2014-08-23 11:32:28
Chris
Unless I'm doing something wrong, this macro only works when the user presses ctrl+w to close out of the workbook. However, if the user presses alt+F4 to close out, then EXCEL will still ask the user if they want to save the changes to a new workbook.
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