Hello Gord

Thanks for the input.

1. I tried CTRL + A (hold down ctrl and A at the same time and nothing
happens?
sorry but I am a 62 yearold newbie to excel

2. Also F5 doesnt do anything

3. I am using excel 97

I am also having problem with understanding the terminolgy.
A. Am I correct in assuming that what I refer to as "protect" ( that the
cell or cells that are protected are not able to be overwritten) in Excell
language is refered to as "locked"
B. That there is no way to unprotect a single cell or a few cells - either
the whole worksheet is protected or the whole worksheet is unprotected
depending on the switch "protection" in "Tools". I cannot for example select
a few cells and just unprotect them temporarily so that I may change a
formula.? ( without unprotecting the whole sheet )

regards fred




"Gord Dibben" <gorddibbATshawDOTca wrote in message
...
I was then able to select the whole spreadsheet
and "blank " all cells that are not protected in one keystroke.

Fred

This post does not address your "colored cells" issue but.........

CRTL + A to select all cells.

F5SpecialConstants. Choose what you want to select and OK.

EditClear Contents

This will leave cells with formulas intact and ready for new data.

Not exactly one keystroke, but you could record a macro and assign it to a
button or shortcut key combo.

Gord Dibben Excel MVP

On 30 Nov 2004 23:41:46 -0800, (Fred Evans)
wrote:

My old dos spreadsheet (supercalc 5) used to colour the text of
protected cells in a different color ,(which made the entry of data
easy because the protected cells usually contain formulae ).When
reentering new data I was then able to select the whole spreadsheet
and "blank " all cells that are not protected in one keystroke.
This left all cells that were protected with there formulae intact and
highlighted in a different color.

Can anyone suggest the way to do this in EXCEL?

The ideal solution would be to create a format or a style that will
automatically be used whenever a cell is protected.

To go throught the whole sheet manually reformatting each and every
protected cell seem to be a very long way around a relatively simple
problem.

Regards from South africa