I have a .xls file that is very important and that I don't want anyone
messing with. However, my people need this .xls file for a Borland Delphi
application that interfaces with Excel via a TExcelApplication class. So I
have to put this Excel file on everyones' machines so my Borland application
can interact with it, but I don't want anyone else touching it or anything. I
can't just mark these .xls files as read-only because then surely some bright
spark will open Excel and unmark the file as read-only and then proceed to go
to town on it. On the other hand, I can't password protect the .xls file
because then Borland Delphi will be unable to communicate with it (I'm pretty
sure. I haven't tried this, you understand. I'm just hypothesizing here.)
What do you guys recommend?

Mr. Snrub,

You can set it up so that when opening it, a password is required to modify it, but without
the password, the user can opt to open it read-only. This won't stop users from changing
stuff, but they won't be able to save the workbook over the oriiginal one. This is done in
the Save dialog, and varies slightly with the version of Excel. This is will not be secure,
as there are password crackers on the internet that will come up with a password that will
open it (probably won't be the original password).

If the users are on a network, putting it on a shared drive ane letting the network control
access would be more secure.
--
Earl Kiosterud
www.smokeylake.com

Note: Top-posting has been the norm here.
Some folks prefer bottom-posting.
But if you bottom-post to a reply that's
already top-posted, the thread gets messy.
When in Rome...
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"Mr. Snrub" <Mr. wrote in message
...
I have a .xls file that is very important and that I don't want anyone
messing with. However, my people need this .xls file for a Borland Delphi
application that interfaces with Excel via a TExcelApplication class. So I
have to put this Excel file on everyones' machines so my Borland application
can interact with it, but I don't want anyone else touching it or anything. I
can't just mark these .xls files as read-only because then surely some bright
spark will open Excel and unmark the file as read-only and then proceed to go
to town on it. On the other hand, I can't password protect the .xls file
because then Borland Delphi will be unable to communicate with it (I'm pretty
sure. I haven't tried this, you understand. I'm just hypothesizing here.)
What do you guys recommend?