File sharing: possible to warn second user of a file that it is already open?

[I hope this forum is the best place for my question.]
I run a small business: a medical practice. I use a Mac Mini to store all my documents, and we use two iMacs to access the documents through File Sharing. I do not run OSX Lion Server. All machines have OSX 10.7.5.
I have a Numbers spreadsheet on the Mac Mini that is frequently opened and modified by the receptionist on one iMac, but also occasionally opened and modified by the doctor on the other iMac. (The vast majority of other files never need to be opened by more than one user.) Occasionally, the Numbers file will be opened by both users at the same time. If one user modifies the file, when s/he tries to close the file, a dialog pops up warning that there are two versions, and providing the choice to Revert or Duplicate & Save. This means a choice between losing changes, or subsequently checking two documents for differences.
Note that it isn't possible to simply call out, "Hey, have you got that spreadsheet open?" when the doctor is seeing a patient.
Also note that privacy is an issue, as the spreadsheet contains numerous patient names.
Is there a way to: (a) Warn the second user opening the file that it is already open? Or (b) Make the file read-only when a second user tries to open it? (c) Inform the second user that the file is in use, and they can't open it at all. (There may be other solutions that I can't think of.)
I am open to all ideas. I have tried dabbling with AppleScript, but can't find a solution with my emerging AppleScript skills. I have been trying to find out if installing OSX Lion Server on the Mac Mini would help, but I can't find the answer online. (I would have to pay someone to install OSX Lion Server, as I have medical software installed that may or may not fit well with Server.)
Thanks in advance for any help.
Peter

hmm, then would there be any way to reproduce the effect of the 'delete' or 'backspace' keys? If I'm right, I think there was an ASCII code for the backspace character... Would it be possible to insert it to get a character deleted!? :/
I really need to find a way to do all of these operations on a text file because I think it wouldn't be a good idea to completely re-write 30Mb+ large files each time some data has to be modified :P

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File sharing: possible to warn second user of a file that it is already open?

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