The cell will be locked by default, but you need to protect the
worksheet for this to take effect - Tools | Protection | Protect
worksheet. You have an option to provide a password if you wish, but
if you do then write it down somewhere so you don't have to come back
here asking how to unprotect it having lost your password !!

This will prevent accidental erasure of the formula.

Hope this helps.

Pete

On Nov 19, 9:12 pm, SliderSteve
wrote:
I have been asked to look at a pronblem with a colleagues spreadsheet in
Excel. When you clear data within a cell, so new data can be added the
formula for teh cell has also been deleted.

Is there a way to set cells to maintain underlying formulas by default?