I think it's best to just call that "by design" as it's the way it works.
The workbook and worksheet password protection in Excel is not so much for
privacy and security as it is for simply preserving the content, layout and
appearance of the worksheets and workbook.

The closest thing to hiding stuff the way you have asked about would be to
put your secret data on a sheet that is Very Hidden (as opposed to just
Hidden) and then password protect the Visual Basic Project and the Workbook
itself. This still doesn't keep someone from getting to the data in a
fashion similar to what you've already noticed.

But even then, if someone can determine the name of the very hidden sheet,
they can set up another workbook and start out on a sheet by entering a
formula that refers to the workbook with that sheet in it, that sheet's name
and cell A1 and then just start filling left-to-right/top-to-bottom in their
new workbook to see the values in yours. Programatically, they could even
copy the actual formulas used in your workbook into their new ones.

"EV Nelson" wrote:

Hi Folks:

We've noticed that we can had columns and password protect the spreadsheet -
at which point the hidden columns cannot be expanded without unprotecting
the spreadsheet. So far so good. . . but upon selecting the spreadsheet
contents and copying them to a new spreadsheet, all of the hidden data is
copied and viewable in the new spreadsheet?

Is this intended by design?

Is there a way to include hidden data that is not viewable or copiable
without the password?

Thanks in advance!

Ev