Can anyone help me with a problem I have with protecting cells in
Excel. I need to protect the content of some cells but not others and
as far as I can see Excel is all or nothing.
I have a spreadsheet which does some calculations based on data
entered by people with almost no computer knowledge. They keep
entering data in the results cells by mistake and screwing up the
spread sheet. The standard protect cells option appears to allow you
to protect all the cells in a worksheet or non at all.

Any ideas please?

before you protect ther sheet go to the cells where you are willing to let
them make changes and <format<cells<protection and unprotect those
specific cells.
when you then ptotect the sheet, only these cells can be changed.

"fred" wrote:

Can anyone help me with a problem I have with protecting cells in
Excel. I need to protect the content of some cells but not others and
as far as I can see Excel is all or nothing.
I have a spreadsheet which does some calculations based on data
entered by people with almost no computer knowledge. They keep
entering data in the results cells by mistake and screwing up the
spread sheet. The standard protect cells option appears to allow you
to protect all the cells in a worksheet or non at all.

Any ideas please?

Fred

It is not "all or nothing".

By default all cells are locked when the sheet is protected.

Hit CRTL + A(twice if xl2003) then FormatCellsProtection. Uncheck "locked"
and OK.

Select the cells you wish to lock and FormatCellsProtection. Check "locked"
and OK

Now ToolsProtectionProtect Sheet. This is mandatory.

You can set a password to unprotect the sheet. These can easily be broken in
Excel but will keep your formulas from being accidentally overwritten.

NOTE the options available in xl2002 and 2003 when you hit Protect Sheet


Gord Dibben Excel MVP

On 30 Apr 2007 08:08:33 -0700, fred wrote:

Can anyone help me with a problem I have with protecting cells in
Excel. I need to protect the content of some cells but not others and
as far as I can see Excel is all or nothing.
I have a spreadsheet which does some calculations based on data
entered by people with almost no computer knowledge. They keep
entering data in the results cells by mistake and screwing up the
spread sheet. The standard protect cells option appears to allow you
to protect all the cells in a worksheet or non at all.

Any ideas please?