How do I completely disable auto-save feature per document?
I am managing a repository where two companies exchange specification documents. Some specifications are in Excel 2019. By default, Microsoft Excel is installed with auto save feature ON. It's the little switch located at top left corner of the window. This setting can be disabled permanently in Excel settings. Even if I do that and I disable the AutoSave, I am still getting automatic saves:
Also, I can't demand all users in all companies to disable their AutoSave just because I want them to. I need to disable this feature per document, so that they can't save changes in my document unless they specifically click SAVE. I can't give them read-only access, since sometimes, the changes are desired. My current workaround is that I export the specifications into PDFs, which don't allow changes, and don't care about people changing the original Excel spreadsheet until the change becomes relevant.
To phrase my question clearly - can I disable Auto-Save feature per document?
31 Answer
I have discovered, that Office documents offer number of features hidden under Protect document sub-menu. Microsoft Excel in particular provides number of ways how to tell users that changes in documents are undesired:
Details about this feature are here. This will at minimum notify users that changes shouldn't be made, or will prevent them from making changes altogether.