Thanks, but I can't lock cells in the worksheet because the users need to
populate the data for me. I am just trying to excercise a degree of control
by only allowing them to enter certain values for particular fields (to avoid
free-form text). To do this I have inserted field validation where they have
to pick the value from a list. If I locked these cells then they would not
be able to pick a value. They cannot enter any values into the cell, besides
those defined in my list, but there is a flaw in the validation in that they
can copy a value from another cell and paste it over the validated cell -
thereby eliminating the validation. How can I prevent the user from passting
over these cells, without having to lock the cells?
"Kassie" wrote:

While in your spreadsheet, unlock all those cells where you want to allow
users to enter data. (Format, Cells, Protection, untick "Locked").
Now click on Tools, Protection, Protect Sheet. There are a number of
options you can select or deselect. At this stage you can also specify a
password to unprotect the sheet, so that only you can do that. Users can
then copy data from your protected cells, but cannot overwrite it. Check
Excel Help on this

"LCK" wrote:

I have a range of validated cells where the user can only pick values from
the specified list. I don't want them to be able to overwrite these cells
with values not in the list by pasting data etc. How do I prevent this?