I have the same problem. Many of my users are inexperienced with excel.
Having them unprotect, then sort, then re-protect is asking for trouble. I
also have protected columns and unprotected columns. I would like to be able
to sort across all the columns and be able to clear the unprotected contents
of a block containintgboth protected and unprotected data.

"Christopher Rath" wrote:

When setting Excel Protection, the options include allowing sorting, allowing
deleting of rows, etc. In my experience with Excel 2003, these options do
NOT work as advertised: even though I have ticked those options Excel still
forces me to remove protection before sorting protected cells or deleting
rows in a protected sheet.

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