Open Excel Workbook that is Password Protected with Read Only

Topic

How to open an Excel Workbook that is password-protected and read-only.
 

When saving an Excel workbook, if Saved As is used, then the user clicks the Tools menu near the Save button and selects General Options..., and read-only protection is checked.

When using the Open Workbook action, it doesn’t seem to be working as intended. Because of the read-only protection, Excel prompts for a password twice, asking for the password for the protected file and also for the Read-Only protection. RPA LE is working as expected but only unlocking the first prompt.

Instructions

We are investigating whether this is a feature they need to add. Still, since we do not hear of a workbook being protected both ways, they may be able to add an option to send the password for Read Only as well, but until then, the workaround to bypass this second password prompt is:

1. Deactivate the Open Workbook action and use the Open File action.
2. When this action is run, target the entire password prompt box and choose the Wait for Target action so that if it takes a few seconds for the prompt to appear, RPA LE will not error or go to your error task. Make sure you set the wait time to 10 seconds or less.

   

    

3. Target the password field and use Send Credential.
4. Target the OK button and send a Click action (alternatively, you can send an enter key since the OK button is the default option).
5. This message below will pop up, target the No button, and send a Click action.

   

    

6. Then, target the workbook and use the Set Connection action.