I would like to hide a couple of rows in my spreadsheet and then lock/protect
them so that the recipient can't see them/change them. What is the best way
to accomplish this? Thanks in advance for you assistance.

There is no sure and certain way to do this - well, there is one and I'll
cover that last. But this will keep the casual user out of places you don't
want them to go.

All cells on a worksheet are "Locked" by default. So the first thing you
need to do is to unlock any cells that you do want your user to be able to
make changes to or enter information into. You do that by choosing the cells
and then using
Format | Cells | and clearing the checkbox next to [Locked] on the
{Protection} tab.

Once you've done that, hide the rows you want to hide and use
Tools | Protection | Protect Sheet
and assign a password (remember or write down what it is) to the sheet.

Problem #1 - Excel passwords are pretty easy to crack. There are any number
of free tools that work with varying degrees of success and some commercial
products that are almost 100% guaranteed to provide some password that will
unlock either a sheet or an entire workbook.

Problem #2 - the really industrious user will figure out that he can use
formulas in an unprotected area on that sheet, or an unprotected area on
another sheet, or on another brand new sheet or even another workbook of his
own creation to reference the hidden cells. I often use this 'trick' myself
to allow myself to work unrestricted with data from a workbook that's all
locked up but that I need to alter while playing "what if" with. I could
crack the other workbook's code but the sender won't accept it back if the
password is changed. So I just basically recreate it in a book of my own
making.

If you don't want them to see the data, find some way of giving them a copy
of the workbook or worksheet without that data on it at all.

"SJT" wrote:

I would like to hide a couple of rows in my spreadsheet and then lock/protect
them so that the recipient can't see them/change them. What is the best way
to accomplish this? Thanks in advance for you assistance.

Thank you for your assistance.

"JLatham" wrote:

There is no sure and certain way to do this - well, there is one and I'll
cover that last. But this will keep the casual user out of places you don't
want them to go.

All cells on a worksheet are "Locked" by default. So the first thing you
need to do is to unlock any cells that you do want your user to be able to
make changes to or enter information into. You do that by choosing the cells
and then using
Format | Cells | and clearing the checkbox next to [Locked] on the
{Protection} tab.

Once you've done that, hide the rows you want to hide and use
Tools | Protection | Protect Sheet
and assign a password (remember or write down what it is) to the sheet.

Problem #1 - Excel passwords are pretty easy to crack. There are any number
of free tools that work with varying degrees of success and some commercial
products that are almost 100% guaranteed to provide some password that will
unlock either a sheet or an entire workbook.

Problem #2 - the really industrious user will figure out that he can use
formulas in an unprotected area on that sheet, or an unprotected area on
another sheet, or on another brand new sheet or even another workbook of his
own creation to reference the hidden cells. I often use this 'trick' myself
to allow myself to work unrestricted with data from a workbook that's all
locked up but that I need to alter while playing "what if" with. I could
crack the other workbook's code but the sender won't accept it back if the
password is changed. So I just basically recreate it in a book of my own
making.

If you don't want them to see the data, find some way of giving them a copy
of the workbook or worksheet without that data on it at all.

"SJT" wrote:

I would like to hide a couple of rows in my spreadsheet and then lock/protect
them so that the recipient can't see them/change them. What is the best way
to accomplish this? Thanks in advance for you assistance.