formatting, through the menus, is not available on a protected sheet as you
have discovered - doesn't make any difference whether the cell is locked or
not. I know this is consistent in xl5 to xl2000. xl2002 had more choices
for protection and it may allow what you want - I don't have a copy readily
available to check.

Regards,
Tom Ogilvy

Tony wrote in message
...
I am trying to protect some areas of the worksheet in Excel 97 but leave
all
the other areas open to all changes. After setting protection formatting
on
unprotected part is locked. Is it just a 97 problem or there is some
solution to my problem. I need to change some formating after protecting
and
at present I can not do it. Any suggestions ???

Regards,

Tony