sent out to a large audience. how can I allow the worksheet to be sorted
while it is protected?

pls. post your version of excel. there are new options in latest versions
re. protected sheets. in excel 2003 for example, you will find an option to
allow sorting in the dialog extras/protection/sheet protection.

if you have older versions (i am not sure about 2002) then you must use
macros for sorting. in the macro first unprotect the sheet, do the sort,
protect the sheet (use screenupdating = false).

arno