John, good points as always. Can't really argue with most of them and I
enjoyed the discussion. I also look forward to meeting with you on other
posts. Thanks for your time and knowledge.
--
RMC,CPA


"John Wilson" wrote in message
...
Richard,

the security of a password to open a file, as I understand it,
is much tougher than the security of passwords on code or on sheets.
Very true. Most of the password crackers that you can buy to
break that password use brute force and can take a few days to
accomplish their task depending on the password.

That is, it would take a much better expert to crack that PW.
That it would ($45.00 to www.lostpasswords.com)
Also, the 2nd file could be placed in a secure directory.
In your scenario though, that second file is opened via
VBA from the first file. In order to do that, the password and
any necessary code to get to that file and open it would have
to be in the VBA coding of the first file. Least common denominator
is the VBA in the first file. Once that's cracked and you can see the
code, the rest is child's play.

Therefore, I could not agree that it is equally futile.
The extent of futility depends on the knowledge and experience
of the user that you're trying to protect it from. Granted, there are
many who don't even know what a macro is and for them, protecting
a workbook and VBA code would probably work well. I'm
certain that most, if not all, of the regular contributors to the ng's
would have no problem at all with whatever protection scheme that
you or I or anyone else could come with.

The point of all of this is that while protecting a workbook or the
VBA coding is not secure, many people still do ask for ways to
do it. Whenever I answer one of these posts, I always make it a
point to let the OP know how vulnerable it is. If they still decide
to use whatever I give them, it's their choice. To give the OP
the impression that there *is* a way within Excel to make their
work safe and secure from prying eyes would be to mislead them.

John



"R. Choate" wrote:

John,
All decent points. However, I think it is easier to secure a file that a
user isn't already in than one which is already open. First, the security
of
a password to open a file, as I understand it, is much tougher than the
security of passwords on code or on sheets. That is, it would take a much
better expert to crack that PW. Also, the 2nd file could be placed in a
secure directory. Again, another layer. You could be clever for additional
security with the 2nd file option. Therefore, I could not agree that it is
equally futile.

However, your point about the OP not mentioning security problems is quite
valid and I am guilty of over-discussing the security issue for this post.
I'll end it here.
--
RMC,CPA

"John Wilson" wrote in message
...
Richard,

Well, if the user doesn't know where the 2nd workbook is, or what the
name
of it is, or what the PW is, then those things might keep the user out.
Whether there's one workbook or two doesn't really matter. If the user
is experienced enough to crack the VBA password (which isn't all that
difficult), I'm sure he/she would easily be able to find the name, path
and
password to the second workbook within the code. Attempting to use
any home made protection scheme is nothing more than an exercise
in futility.

I'm guessing from the OP's post (though he didn't make it crystal clear)
that he had a workbook that depended on macros to operate correctly
and wanted to insure that they were enabled. I didn't get the impression
that he wanted to protect it from anyone. If that was his intent, the
"hide
all sheets except one" should work rather well.

John

"R. Choate" wrote:

Well, if the user doesn't know where the 2nd workbook is, or what the
name
of it is, or what the PW is, then those things might keep the user out.
That
is at least more secure than having all the goodies right there in the
file
with the dead macros.
--
RMC,CPA

"Henry" wrote in message
...
Jon,
Its a Catch 22 situation.
What're you gonna use to stop the user opening the workbook... a macro?
But the user has just disabled macros!!!

ATB
Henry

"Jon" wrote in message
...
Is there a way to allow a user to open a workbook ONLY if they have
allowed
the macros to execute? I've searched and searched for a proper setting
for
this but haven't been able to come up with squat yet. I know that
there
has
to be a way.....someone help, please before I lose the rest of my
mind.........


Thank you.


Jon