I have a spreadsheet that is updated via DDE links. Currently, I have
a computer set up with keyboard and mouse at the piece of equipment
that I am communicating with. My problem is that people can just walk
up to the computer and modify my spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is
always open because it is viewed by operators, but I do not want them
to have the ability to modify the sheet, all modifying is done by the
DDE links. Is there any way to set Excel to prevent input by a user?
I could simply unplug the keyboard but I need to access the PC on
occasion. Any ideas?

Have you trying reading Help on this?

1. You can protect the sheet (or the entire book). Format the cells as
Protected, then use Tools Protection.

2. From VBA you can set Interactive = FALSE, which switches off the user
interface completely.




"Jon" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a spreadsheet that is updated via DDE links. Currently, I have
a computer set up with keyboard and mouse at the piece of equipment
that I am communicating with. My problem is that people can just walk
up to the computer and modify my spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is
always open because it is viewed by operators, but I do not want them
to have the ability to modify the sheet, all modifying is done by the
DDE links. Is there any way to set Excel to prevent input by a user?
I could simply unplug the keyboard but I need to access the PC on
occasion. Any ideas?

Yep, thats all I needed. I didn't think that would work at first
because the values in the cells are updated by DDE links. But I
realized that the actual contents of the cell never change (just the
value it produces). Thanks.