I wish to protect data in a spreadsheet from accidentally being changed
so I use sheet protection with cell locking. Sure enough when I try to
type directly into the cell I am prevented. HOWEVER I have setup
validation pulldown lists to force users to enter valid data. If I go
to a locked cell and select the pulldown list I can select another
value from the list and this is entered into the cell despite the fact
is locked and the sheet protected. WHY?


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Message posted from http://www.ExcelForum.com/

I was able to reproduce your problem with Excel 2000 but not with Excel 2002
or 2003. So it looks like MS changed their design in later versions.

The only way I know to work around this problem in Excel 2000 is to embed
the list in the data validation directly. That means, instead of
referencing a range in the Data, Validation dialog, place the items in the
list in the dialog in place of the range, separated by commas.

--
Jim Rech
Excel MVP