When opening AutoCAD Drawing File Types (.DWG) in SharePoint 2007, if a user already has the file open and a second user opens the drawing, the user is not advised that the file is already open by another user like it does for Word or Excel file types. Is there a way of enabling this so that if two users try to open the same file at the same time, they are advised of such? Many thanks.

You can enable "Required checked out" option for the document library from the versoning settings, so that when a user opens a file for editing purpose other user gets it in "Read Only" mode. And after getting "Checked In" from first user other users get edit option.Regards, Pratik Vyas, SharePoint Consultant

Many thanks for this very helpful suggestion. Do you know if using a UNC path to access the sharepoint data, how this will react, as it would be ideal if the users are notified in a similar way if trying to open the file this way? Once again, many thanks.

It will be the same as you open document from doc lib. If you have enebled "Required Checked Out" option on Lib, it reflects the same on UNC location. and when any user tries to edit the document by openining it from UNC path it definitely requires document to be checked ut first which will capture the user name who modified that document.Regards, Pratik Vyas, SharePoint Consultant

Having applied this suggestion, this has created even more problems, where all users now have to check-in all their files when they are created. Unless they do, all other users cant see their new files. Is there no other way around our original problem?

You can enable "Required checked out" option for the document library from the versoning settings, so that when a user opens a file for editing purpose other user gets it in "Read Only" mode. And after getting "Checked In" from first user other users get edit option.Regards, Pratik Vyas, SharePoint Consultant

It will be the same as you open document from doc lib. If you have enebled "Required Checked Out" option on Lib, it reflects the same on UNC location. and when any user tries to edit the document by openining it from UNC path it definitely requires document to be checked ut first which will capture the user name who modified that document.Regards, Pratik Vyas, SharePoint Consultant

Hi, Honestly, enabling required check out is a good choice in most cases when it comes to avoid multiple users accessing a non-Office document at the same time for editing. To fix the problem when users leave the files as checked out, you can create a custom event hander so that as soon as an item is added or updated it will be automatically checked in. Here are some references that may help. http://farhanfaiz.wordpress.com/2007/12/31/creating-adding-an-event-handler/ http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointworkflow/thread/36b5a80f-8164-48dc-a74c-0475e135b33f Thanks & Regards. Lily Wu TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.comLily Wu

Hi, Honestly, enabling required check out is a good choice in most cases when it comes to avoid multiple users accessing a non-Office document at the same time for editing. To fix the problem when users leave the files as checked out, you can create a custom event hander so that as soon as an item is added or updated it will be automatically checked in. Here are some references that may help. http://farhanfaiz.wordpress.com/2007/12/31/creating-adding-an-event-handler/ http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointworkflow/thread/36b5a80f-8164-48dc-a74c-0475e135b33f Thanks & Regards. Lily Wu TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.comLily Wu