You could do it but it would require that users enable macros upon start up.

Also Excel's security is quite weak and users could crack passwords on the code
to make the workbook "timebomb" itself.

See Chip Pearson's site for a few methods of creating a self-destructing
workbook.

Note his caveats at beginning and the alternative of creating a Com add-in or
similar.

http://www.cpearson.com/excel/workbooktimebomb.aspx


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP


On Wed, 4 Jun 2008 08:26:02 -0700, dave.d71
wrote:

ok you got my attention but how do you do this?
im not up to speed with macros etc, and rely on formulas in cells to do the
job.
is there an easy way to do this?

"Vijay Chary" wrote:

Hi Dave !!
you could write a workbook-open event procedure that
colours all the sheets in your workbook BLACK and also closes the workbook,
on the 'expiry' date. That will do the trick !! But don't tell your employees
how you did it !!

"dave.d71" wrote:

im putting together a workbook that i use to track performance of staff.
i want to code in somehow a future expiry date so that it can no longer be
used.
this is to prevent others from coping my hard work in design etc. and just
use it for their own benifit if they were to leave or move to a competitor.