# Microsoft Office Application Help - Excel Help forum > For Other Platforms(Mac, Google Docs, Mobile OS etc) >  >  Personal Macro Workbook Locked for Editing

## rylock

Hi everyone,

My Excel 2011 for Mac gives me a popup every time I open it:

LockedforEditing.png

When I click "Read-Only," this pops up:

EditPMW.png

I usually just click "Read-Only" and "Cancel" to start working, but it presents two problems:
It's annoying; andIt prevents me from saving any macros in my Personal Macro Workbook.
Recently, when I've tried to save a macro to my personal workbook, it's started telling me this:

PMWStartup.png

Then that it's "Unable to Record."

I tried to follow the path in my HD to the Office/Excel folder to find the Personal Macro Workbook -- and I don't think it exists anywhere, which might be the problem, but I'm not sure and I don't know how to fix it if it is.

Any suggestions?

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## romperstomper

It must exist or you wouldn't get those messages. Perhaps it is disabled or has been marked as read-only somehow.

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## rylock

Any idea what I should do to get rid of the messages and start being able to save to my Personal Macro Workbook again?

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## romperstomper

You may simply need to change the file permissions on the folder in which it is located.

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## rylock

I think the potential problem is that I can't find the folder where it's located. If you look at the 'EditPMW' image, it tells me the path of where it's supposed to be -- but when I get to Microsoft/Office folders there's no 'Excel' folder for me to click on.

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## romperstomper

I seem to recall that the USERS\user_name\library folder is hidden by default - can you actually see that folder?

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## rylock

It seems to work when I search for 'Library' in Finder, and when I look at the path when I click on that folder, it says, "HD\Users\Shared\Username\Library, then I can get to 'Application Support\Microsoft\Office' -- but within the 'Office' folder, there should be an 'Excel' folder, but all I have is Chart Templates, Clipart, SmartArt Graphics, and User Templates.

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## romperstomper

Open a Finder window, hold the Option key down and click the Go menu item and choose Library. From there navigate to Application Support\Microsoft\Office\Excel and see if the workbook is there. If it is, use the Get Info option to check what rights you have to it (in the Security section) - you need Read/Write.

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## rylock

One step closer! Thanks! I apparently wasn't looking at the correct path earlier, as now I have the Excel folder within 'Office' and I can see my Personal Macro Workbook.

Only problem is that it looks right? My privilege is "Read & Write," "Fetching..." is Read only and "everyone" is Read only.

Any ideas?

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## rylock

And when I click directly on the Personal Macro Workbook to open it, it just gives me the same error messages as the original ones I posted at the top of this thread.

But a few updates:

When I try to edit a macro currently in my Personal Macro Workbook, it says "Cannot edit a macro on a hidden workbook. Unhide the workbook using the Unhide command."

So when I click on "Personal Macro Workbook" in Finder, I first have to click "Read-Only," then another pop-up asks me if I want to "Edit" or "Cancel" (like above) -- if I click "Edit" it takes me back to "Read-Only" and if I click "Cancel," it looks like nothing happens -- but, from there, if I click "Window --> Unhide," it lets me unhide my Personal Macro Workbook and I see a blank Excel spreadsheet, but it's still "Read-Only" so I can't re-save it as unhid.

Hope that helps!

Here are some of the pop-ups I'm getting:

SaveLaterPMW.png
ReadOnlyPMW.png
SaveAsPMW.png
UnhidePMW.png

Thanks again!

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## romperstomper

When you view the workbook in Finder and use Get Info, did you check the permissions on both the workbook and the Excel folder? Can you also check that neither has the Locked option checked?

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## rylock

Both the Excel folder and the Personal Macro Workbook have the same settings: neither are locked and they're both "Read & Write" for my permissions.

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## romperstomper

Is this a new problem? Did you create the Personal Macro Workbook on that machine?

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## rylock

It didn't happen when I first got Office 2011 -- then I remember it happened maybe a little over a year ago, and I think I fixed it somehow. After that, something happened fairly recently (within a few months) and it came back. When I 'fixed it' the first time, I don't believe I created anything. Pretty sure I just went in and deleted the macro that was causing problems -- but it won't let me do that this time because it's read-only.

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## romperstomper

Can you remove the workbook (move it to another folder) and then restart Excel and make sure all is OK. Then restart Excel and record a new macro, then exit and save the new macro workbook and see if that all works without error.

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## rylock

When I moved it to my Desktop, for the first time Excel opened without any 'this file is locked for editing' pop-up -- so I recorded a random macro and it let me save it to the Personal Macro Workbook. Now when I open Excel, I get the same messages as I did before now that I have a macro saved in the PMW again -- even though, this time, it's on my Desktop. If I try to edit my macro, it tells me again that I can't edit a hidden workbook.

Update: I just noticed I have two Personal Macro Workbooks now. One on my Desktop and one reborn in my Excel folder.

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## romperstomper

That is as it should be. This still sounds like a permissions issue to me - you may want to try repairing disk permissions.

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## rylock

A little stumped -- but I know a lot more about it than I used to. Thanks for all the help!

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