protecting certain cells

[The Data Rat]

Newbie to this group...

We keep all of our company info on a complicated but nicely formatted little
excell spread sheet. Is there anyway to prevent/protect the formatted cells
from someone deleting/typing in them?

In other words, if cell C3 is the sum of cell C1 and C2, how can I prevent
anyone from changing C3, but allow them to enter info in cells C1 and C2?
Needless to say, losing the formatting defeats the whole purpose and I have
spent hours going through the spread sheet trying to find where the
formatting was deleted/changed.

I am using 2000 on one computer and 98 on another.

Thanks!

[Quandan - Marcel Kreijne]

Hi Data Rat,

Sorry for the (very) late response, but maybe you are still looking for the
answer...
Standard all cells are set to be protected as soon as the worksheet
protection is activated.
So what you need to do is to unprotect all cells you want the user to be
able to change:

- Select one pf the input cells
- Press the [Ctrl] button and hold down.
- Select all other input cells one by one (or range by range if they are
connecting to each other) by clicking (and dragging) with the mouse.
- Release the [Ctrl] button.
- Right-click in one of the selected cells and pick 'Format Cells...' from
the pop-up menu.
- In the window 'Format Cells' select the Tab called 'Protection'
- Unmark the box in front of 'Locked'
- Click [Ok]

Now Protect the worksheet:
- Goto Tools / Protection / Protect sheet...
- Now you might want to enter a password, but it is not nescessary. If you
decide to enter a password make sure you won't forget it!!
- Click Ok...

That's it...

Kind regards,

Marcel Kreijne
Quandan - Steunpunt voor spreadsheetgebruikers
(Quandan - dutch supportsite for spreadsheetusers)
www.quandan.nl

"The Data Rat" <kia_...@yahoo.com> schreef in bericht
news:Nte4b.34862$xf.181@lakeread06...

[Larry A.]

... and the nice part is that when formatted in this manner, when the
user tabs, it will go only from entry (unlocked) cell to entry cell.
(So a nice fine point is to put the cursor in the first input cell,
before you save it.) To add a little extra protection, when you
finally have it the way you want it, set the file properties to "read
only" (i.e. write protect it.)

- Larry A.

[bayxare...@yahoo.com]

How do you get the TAB functionality - I don't seem to get that when I
protect it .... even when the cursor is in an unlocked cell when I
protect it.

Also - How can managage the locked or unlocked state from a formula? I
am always changing my spreadsheet and I color my cells to indicate it
should be modified - but then I have to redo the unlock process all
over again when I change things. I would like to write some macro which
says if the cell color = CYAN then unlock it.

Thanks,

John