I struggled over a similar issue last year- I hid all the worksheets and
left a simple opening spreadsheet visible letting the user know that if they
opened up the workbook with macros disabled- they could not access anything.
If macros were enabled- the spreadsheets were password unprotected and
unhidden and as soon as the save or save as was selected- the spreadsheets
were write protected. (This was to preserve the 'template' and prevent
users from taking an old form and adding new data to it- which was often
wrong or incomplete- was better for the person to start from scratch and
answer every field than to change only a few and have other categories
wrong- imagine the previous phone number or email and wrong information
going to the wrong party- was far better to have no phone or email than the
previous form's data.....

The macros work like a charm. Spreadsheets stay hidden and protected as
required and can't be interfered with unless the designer opens them up with
macros turned off, unlocks the spreadsheet, unhides forms, etc.

It was a monster to program (not a vba expert here) but it was fun!

Paul
"Dean" wrote in message
...
I wrote a macro that hides worksheets under certain conditions. Is there a
way so that users can't simply unhide those sheets, perhaps via some sort of
password they wouldn't know? Does the workBOOK need to be protected to
accomplish this? If so, what are the other adverse implications of
protecting a workbook? I don't want a cure worse than the disease.

Thanks!
Dean