If you lock the cell (default) in Format=Cells, protection tab and also
select hidden and then protect the worksheet under
Tools=Protection=Protect sheet with a password, doesn't that do what you
want.

This certainly isn't foolproof as password crackers are easy to come by, but
does provide some security.

Obviously, you need to specify a display value, not have it default to the
fully qualified path to the file.

--
Regards,
Tom Ogilvy



Srinivas Chundi wrote in message
...
Using VB6, I have created an excel spreadsheet. Some cells contain a
hyperlink to TIF image files on a specific server within the LAN. When the
user clicks on any one of these cells, it launches a copy of Imaging
software and displays the image the hyperlink is pointing to.

Is it possible to let the users view the images, like they are currently
doing, without giving them direct read access to the specific location
where
the image files are located? I need to do this to ensure that the users do
not view/access the images by any means other than clicking on the
hyperlink. Also, the location of the images should be hidden from them and
they should not be able to edit or copy/paste the hyperlink to a different
software, such as word. In essance, the users should not know where the
images are actually located and they should not be able to get to them by
any other means, say using windows explorer or word.

It is really important that I accomplish something as close to this as
possible.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
-- M