I am very unfamiliar with Excel - using 2003.

I've been given a spreadsheet with multiple complicated formulas, and I need
to find a way to protect it from inadvertent changes. It's really a template
- I want to lock the formulas, etc., but I want people to be able to open it
up and paste in their data. It seems like this should be really easy, but the
Excel security overview (in help) and the other resources I've looked at
don't seem to address it - they just talk about protecting cells/data (which
I don't want - users need to paste in cell content) and/or formatting (also
don't care about).

How can I just protect the formulas from being changed, but still allow
users to paste in data to obtain calculated results?

TIA,
Jen

Jen

By default all cells are locked when the sheet is protected.

Hit CRTL + A(twice if xl2003) then FormatCellsProtection. Uncheck "locked"
and OK.

Select the cells you wish to lock and FormatCellsProtection. Check "locked"
and OK.

Now ToolsProtectionProtect Sheet. This is mandatory.

You can set a password to unprotect. These can easily be broken in Excel but
will keep your formulas from being accidentally overwritten.

NOTE the options available in xl2002 and 2003 when you hit Protect Sheet.

You can allow formatting and other stuff but your formula cells will remain
locked.

Best to not allow inserting rows or columns.

Could mess up your formulas.


Gord Dibben Excel MVP


On Thu, 7 Dec 2006 14:36:00 -0800, Jen wrote:

I am very unfamiliar with Excel - using 2003.

I've been given a spreadsheet with multiple complicated formulas, and I need
to find a way to protect it from inadvertent changes. It's really a template
- I want to lock the formulas, etc., but I want people to be able to open it
up and paste in their data. It seems like this should be really easy, but the
Excel security overview (in help) and the other resources I've looked at
don't seem to address it - they just talk about protecting cells/data (which
I don't want - users need to paste in cell content) and/or formatting (also
don't care about).

How can I just protect the formulas from being changed, but still allow
users to paste in data to obtain calculated results?

TIA,
Jen

Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP