Excel 2002

I use Excel 2002 to compute grades from my Gateway 4200(Win 98) desktop, and save all files to my Novell home directory. However, recently I received a Dell Latitude laptop, with the Office 2002, and use it in the classroom. My problem is that when I open those saved excel files on the laptop, work in it, and save back to the my home directory-- I cannot again open and edit the same files from my desktop or laptop. I can only open them in Openview. When I check the attributes on the excel file, they are listed as "archived". Only happens with excel, and not word or powerpoint. Any ideas??!! Many thanks!!!

Can you logon to someone else's desktop and access them from there? If not, this is a server problem - the server has set the file in use and excel can't open it.