Dave,

thank you for more direction, as above post to Gord, I am now in the ocean
of excel, I used to get to play in the wading pool, but no more. Complex
forms, programming and lots of interesting set ups are in store for me in
this program. The team asks if these ideas can be done, of course I say yes,
then scramble to figure out how.


--
Continuously think of new ideas and do what it takes to create it, never be
afraid to ask if you don''t.


"Dave Peterson" wrote:

You can't change the message, but you can stop them from selecting locked cells
on a protected sheet.

Option Explicit
Sub auto_open()
Dim wks As Worksheet
Set wks = Worksheets("sheet1")
With wks
.Protect password:="hi"
.EnableSelection = xlUnlockedCells
End With
End Sub

If you're new to macros, you may want to read David McRitchie's intro at:
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/getstarted.htm

Ken wrote:

I understand how to protect the whole sheet and allow certain cells to be
populated. two part question.

1) is there a way to allow the cursor to only spot or start with the
unlocked cells? Almost like a fillable PDF? I had an excel sheet where it
ignored the protected areas and only went to the unprotected user cells.

2) If the above cannot be done, how do you turn off that "this sheet is
protected" popup? My users will find out they can't change the sheet, but
don't want them to get as annoyed as I do when I accidently click the wrong
cell.

Thanks.
--
Continuously think of new ideas and do what it takes to create it.

--

Dave Peterson