This might be an exceptionally easy one to answer - it might not - but I guess it's worth giving a go nonetheless.

We (as in my company) need a way to share an Excel document with our Australia-based "other" - it's a nasty document register/transmittal record kind of thing - which needs to be readily accesbile by all in London during the UK working day, and by all in Oz thereafter.

We've looked at Google shared docs - it looked to promise so much - but alas, the formatting of the .xls doesn't really function with the viewer/editor's limited powers - and printing just plain didn't work as we wanted.

We've an FTP (and obviously email) to bounce the file back and forth at "a certain hour" - but that's not foolproof - and restricts each office's worktime (or at least access to it) - and in architecture, late nights are unfortunately not uncommon.

We can't really establish VPN's (or the like) for one set of office's users to the file stored on the other office's network, there's hotdesking (without roaming profiles) in both offices - and resourcing of staff on the job changes daily.

This all said, is there a solution for our two teams to get at the document "as if it were local".

Any help or suggestions would be greatly recieved.

www.mesh.com with a shared live login for all users on a dedicated account

www.dropbox.com

other source control methods?

Cheers dude - I've just downloaded and installed the Dropbox app - it's a bit like Humyo - and in that sense not really what I'm looking for... ideally, we can open the .xls from the remote location - not download it, edit it, then save it back... unless that is an option I've yet to find?

EDIT Ignore me - I was only looking at via the web viewer, and not "through" the other computer's dropbox folder... it's perfect! Now all I need do is get everyone signed up to it...

EDIT #02 Garrrgghh! It doesn't restrict one-user only, and creates "conflicted copies" instead when files are editted and saved by multiple users. What a complete arse/farce - surely that's the prime reason for wanting to use something like this!!!?!

Why won't a VPN connection between the two offices work? That is what we use, then they can just edit the file directly on the file server in the UK. The routers on both sides just need to establish the VPN connection, not individual users. Then you set the rights on the directory that only those that need access get access... You also get point-to-point encryption, if the contents are sensitive.

Use Sharepoint on the London server & access the file via sharepoint web access from Oz

Exactly what I was about to suggest.

Great minds & that

Could also go the next step with hosted sharepoint solutions.

What exactly do you expect it to do if two people save different versions? Do magic on it? Remember, Dropbox is designed for a single user with multiple devices - which is not your situation. CC loves it and so do I, but not for what you are doing.

"Conflicted copies" is exactly why you should be using a database instead of a spreadsheet. A database is designed to be modified by different users; a spreadsheet is not.

I think you need to look at what you actually need to achieve. Setting up a little web portal to a database may well be a good solution, and there are great free hosting options for that if you don't have the power to make it happen internally. I don't really know what you want to achieve, but multiple people editing the same XL file is always a bad idea.

Oh don't get me wrong JJ - this is not my idea.

Personally I've been championing a major overhaul of our document control system since the day I started - but my powers-that-be are very hot/cold on their IT development - pushing in some areas and stalling in others; we're still using an antiquated xls because this unfortunately is an area they stalled in a long long time ago.

What's even more frustrating is that they're inflexible mid-job. So there's no overhaul happening as we're running live one year in on a four year project.

The director in control of IT doesn't want to go near sharepoint (for whatever reason) so I reckon it's going to have to a VPN solution. We've got one for the UK-in-Oz guys (me and another at the moment) but my boss(es) are reluctant to open up access to the UK server to the OZ team for fear they'll do it harm (they are pretty slack IT wise) - it's also painfully slow to do anything "remotely" -(despite having a speedier dedicated line) so I can't imagine how crippling it would be for the Oz team to do it.

Do you have a server you can use (even sharing will be fine)?

If so you could whack redmine on it + TortoiseSVN on the clients and its simple source control there, with web access, a wiki etc too

then you just need to make sure others can use source control properly

One of the first reactions to Dropbox was the "fuss" of installing additional applications on workstations - so that solution sounds even less doable.

We're running a NAS here in the Oz office that acts as a bridge to to the UK, four a 12hour rollover sync - but the Australians aren't allowed to look at that so I can't store the spreadsheet there.

I'm properly bored of all this. I'm supposed to be doing "architectural things" yet find my time consumed by administration, protocol and IT "management" - with a team of luddites, retards and skintflints to "manage" - none of whom care how things work until it doesn't work for them - then they all look to me because they all think I'm the anal one who cares about it - when in truth all I care about is making my life easier. If only they appreciated that my (grander) proposals would make theirs easier aswell.

If the VPN isn't an option, then have you looked at Office live or Groove?

Tortoise SVN is a shell extension, Redmine goes on the server, you wouldn't notice TortoiseSVN unless you right clicked on a file or ran it from the start menu