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angbob angbob is offline
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Default How to obscure functionality

I, too, am interested in hiding Excel computations.
Rather than make VBA difficult to read, I'd like completely to hide the
formulas and VBA in selected cells.
And rather than rely on passwords, I'd like to see "hard hiding", i.e. once
a cell's computation is hidden, it is not retrievable. (Yes, it requires
some idiot-proofing.)

Regards, Bob


"travis" wrote:

I've got a spreadsheet which I'm about to start leasing to paying
users. I want to create a fully functional demo version that will
lock up after a period and have its formulas and especially its VBA
code obscured and protected against copying.

Knowing how easy it is to crack the password on spreadsheets, I know
that just putting a standard password on it isn't going to do much.

So what are my options?

I know about time bombing, and about inserting various date sensitive
bugs in cell formulas =if(today()bombdate,cause error,formula), but I
want to make it harder to copy.

I'm most concerned about hiding the VBA. If I can lock up the VBA
somehow so the code can't be viewed or copied that would protect the
most valuable parts of the intellectual property.

Travis