You can add VBA so that after a particular date all the sheets and
modules get removed.

You can also add VBA so that if an Excel document is opened somewhere
other than the corporate network posts an email message to a web
server that gets submitted transparently - as far as the user is
concerned.

You can add a blurb that warns the user that distribution of the sheet
may result in termination or legal action. Add a little checkbox in
there just for effect.

But it's VERY easy for a non-technical person-Excel-user to work
around ALL that.

What you want to do can't be done.

The CLOSEST you can get is to store the data in a pdf or flash file
and make it so the document can't be saved locally. You can make the
report 1600 pixels so it can't be easily screen captured.

For starters it might also set the file up in a web site or Sharepoint
server that requires NT authentication. Then tell users always to
access the file through a particular link.

But no matter what, users can screen capture the data and save it.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft, In its European Anti-
Trust law suit, didn't submit it's techincal documents to regulators.
Instead the regulators had to fly out to Redmond and read documents in
a small room where a security guard watched their every move. No
cameras. The regulators had to come at their own expense which annoyed
them like crazy.

Opps.

This:

You can also add VBA so that if an Excel document is opened somewhere
other than the corporate network posts an email message to a web
server that gets submitted transparently - as far as the user is
concerned.

Should read:

You can also add VBA so that when an Excel document is opened off of
the corporate network it posts
a message containing the user's computer information to a web server
that you control. Posting the data would
occur transparently as far as the user is concerned.

Is it possible to make a worksheet time sensitive? I need a worksheet to
become inoperable after a given time period. Any help greatly appreciated

Hi mepetey,

You *can* make this work through vba.

The underlying principle is to code the workbook so that it won't work unless macros are enabled. If they're disabled, all the user
gets is a blank worksheet. Enabled, your macro populates the worksheet and allows whatever user actions you want, until the workbook
expires. You might want to trap the 'Save' and 'Save As' events too, to prevent the workbook being saved with any data/formulae
available. After the expiry point passes, your code deletes everything - your activation code included.

Cheers
--
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]
-------------------------

"mepetey" wrote in message ...
Is it possible to make a worksheet time sensitive? I need a worksheet to become inoperable after a given time period. Any help
greatly appreciated

This works with a honest (or lazy) client.

Otherwise, they just go to their (or, their IT Department's) most recent
backup, and use one of several widely-available and free techniques to
bypass macro protection and remove the code that "deletes everything".

Or if they're even slightly predisposed, when they first get the warning
that macros must be enabled, they'll bypass macro protection
immediately...

In article ,
"macropod" wrote:

After the expiry point passes, your code deletes everything - your activation
code included.

Hi Jim,

With a protected project, removing the code would be beyond most users, even most IT depts probably. Yes, I know there are software
packages for breaking into protected code modules, but how many users out there are likely to have that - before their self-expiring
workbook's been crippled?

If you re-read my previous post you'll see that, with the approach I proposed, bypassing the macro protection renders the workbook's
contents and functions unavailable.

Cheers
--
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]
-------------------------

"JE McGimpsey" wrote in message ...
This works with a honest (or lazy) client.

Otherwise, they just go to their (or, their IT Department's) most recent
backup, and use one of several widely-available and free techniques to
bypass macro protection and remove the code that "deletes everything".

Or if they're even slightly predisposed, when they first get the warning
that macros must be enabled, they'll bypass macro protection
immediately...

In article ,
"macropod" wrote:

After the expiry point passes, your code deletes everything - your activation
code included.

In article ,
"macropod" wrote:

Yes, I know there are software packages for breaking into protected
code modules, but how many users out there are likely to have that -
before their self-expiring workbook's been crippled?

Dunno - free methods that require no software packages have been posted
in newsgroups. If users have the ability to find *this* post, they also
have the ability to find and use those methods. And there's no time
limit - just use a backup copy (including, say, an archived copy in
their email client if that's the method of distribution).

If you re-read my previous post you'll see that, with the approach I
proposed, bypassing the macro protection renders the workbook's
contents and functions unavailable.

Don't see how. If one bypasses macro protection, one can then open the
workbook (with macros disabled) and remove/disable whatever it is that
'renders the workbook's contents and functions unavailable'.

I wasn't suggesting that your method wouldn't likely be adequate for the
majority of users. My caution was because the OP said that he wanted the
workbook to become "inoperable".

Don't see how. If one bypasses macro protection, one can then open the
workbook (with macros disabled) and remove/disable whatever it is that
'renders the workbook's contents and functions unavailable'.

Well, if the worksheets start out blank and the vba code populates them with the data and functions, then disabling the macros
prevents the user getting access to either the data or the functions. Quite simple, really.

Cheers
--
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]
-------------------------

In article ,
"macropod" wrote:

Well, if the worksheets start out blank and the vba code populates them with
the data and functions, then disabling the macros
prevents the user getting access to either the data or the functions. Quite
simple, really.

What's to prevent the user from removing macro protection (again, with
the workbook closed, using extremely simple techniques), then opening
the file with macros disabled, examining the code, removing or modifying
the part(s) that check for expiry, saving the file, then opening it with
macros enabled to populate the data and functions?

That's simple too. Removing protection takes about 30 seconds. Finding
the expiry code may take a bit longer, but probably not very long.

I've done this many, many times for clients that have had employees who
created "expiring" workbooks, and who have since left the company or
forgotten the project password. In fairness, half the time one can
defeat the protection just by running a backup copy after setting the
computer's clock back to before the expiry date.

A further difficulty is preventing the user from saving a copy of the
workbook with all the data and formulae expunged from the worksheet(s)
(but yet saved somewhere safe) and everything locked up tight. It's
possible, certainly, but not without its tricky aspects.

One client of mine, in addition to project protection and vba population
of key formulae, and many, many, layers of checking hidden activation
codes, *and* almost continuous on-time macros running to detect removal
of worksheet and workbook protection, asked me to make a small
modification to the app. He sent me a copy of the app, and called 1/2
hour later to give me the activation key. He was flabbergasted when I
told him I didn't need it, that I'd already removed or bypassed
everything he'd done and made the modification.

Trying to make XL workbooks secure from the moderately curious is like
adding epicycles upon epicycles to circular orbits - adding layers of
protection may look better and better, but ultimately it's futile.

Yes, certainly the average user won't be bothered try to break the app,
but if one wants it truly "inoperable", one shouldn't be using XL.

A COM add-in or another compiled app is far more secure.

"JE McGimpsey" wrote in message ...
In article ,
"macropod" wrote:

Well, if the worksheets start out blank and the vba code populates them with
the data and functions, then disabling the macros
prevents the user getting access to either the data or the functions. Quite
simple, really.

What's to prevent the user from removing macro protection (again, with
the workbook closed, using extremely simple techniques), then opening
the file with macros disabled, examining the code, removing or modifying
the part(s) that check for expiry, saving the file, then opening it with
macros enabled to populate the data and functions?

That's simple too. Removing protection takes about 30 seconds. Finding
the expiry code may take a bit longer, but probably not very long.

I've done this many, many times for clients that have had employees who
created "expiring" workbooks, and who have since left the company or
forgotten the project password. In fairness, half the time one can
defeat the protection just by running a backup copy after setting the
computer's clock back to before the expiry date.

A further difficulty is preventing the user from saving a copy of the
workbook with all the data and formulae expunged from the worksheet(s)
(but yet saved somewhere safe) and everything locked up tight. It's
possible, certainly, but not without its tricky aspects.

One client of mine, in addition to project protection and vba population
of key formulae, and many, many, layers of checking hidden activation
codes, *and* almost continuous on-time macros running to detect removal
of worksheet and workbook protection, asked me to make a small
modification to the app. He sent me a copy of the app, and called 1/2
hour later to give me the activation key. He was flabbergasted when I
told him I didn't need it, that I'd already removed or bypassed
everything he'd done and made the modification.

Trying to make XL workbooks secure from the moderately curious is like
adding epicycles upon epicycles to circular orbits - adding layers of
protection may look better and better, but ultimately it's futile.

Yes, certainly the average user won't be bothered try to break the app,
but if one wants it truly "inoperable", one shouldn't be using XL.

A COM add-in or another compiled app is far more secure.

Yes, all these things are true, and they just go to show how the standard 'expiry' protections might be circumvented. That's not to
say the principle is unsound, and the OP was after advice on how it might be done. Of course, using Office Developer Edition makes
it pretty easy to turn vba code into a COM add-in (see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306130/en-us). Getting the COM add-in to
un-register and delete itself might be a bit more work, though.

Cheers
--
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]
-------------------------