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hide and protect

ResolvedVersion 2003

Karen has attended:
Excel Advanced course

Hide and protect

Hi

I wish to give a workbook (made up of 50 sheets all the same) to someone to enter some data in some of the columns (say columns M & N on every one of the 50 sheets). But however, the data in columns C to L of each sheet is confidential and so I wish to hide it from view while the person is entering and also protect these columns C to L (I do know how to hide columns but I do not want theperson to be able to unhide it). Can you tell me how please. I have tried from the manual/help screen but not going well !

RE: Hide and protect

Hello Karen

Thank you for your question.

In order for someone to be able to enter data into columns M and N, you would need to unlock the cells in these columns, then apply protection to the sheet.

To speed up the process of doing this to every single sheet, it would be a good idea to record a macro, and then you can play the macro on each sheet. Still a bit time-consuming, but better than carrying out the same steps manually on each sheet.

Try the following:
1. Start the macro recorder (Tools - Macro - Record New Macro), and give the macro a name (without any spaces in it). Click OK to start recording.
2. Select columns M and N, right-click on top of the selected cells and go to Format Cells. On the Protection tab, uncheck the Locked option and click OK.
3. If required, also select and hide the columns that need to be hidden (assuming that this hasn't been done already on each sheet).
4. Apply protection by going to Tools - Protection - Protect Sheet, and click OK.
5. Stop the macro recorder by pressing the Stop button on the small toolbar on the screen; or going to Tools - Macro - Stop Recording.

Test the macro on another sheet to make sure it works properly: Tools - Macro - Macros, select the macro and click Run.

You may like to add a button to your toolbar to run the macro rather than having to go through the Tools menu on each sheet: Tools - Customise - Commands tab. Select Macros under Categories on the left, select the Custom button from the right; drag and drop this onto a toolbar at the top of the screen.

To attach the macro to the button: right-click on the button and go to Assign Macro, select the macro and click OK. You can also change the button display from the shortcut (right-click) menu.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards
Amanda

Thu 5 Nov 2009: Automatically marked as resolved.

Excel tip:

Conditional formatting for cells that return text , not picked up by Go to command

If you have tried to format all cells containing text even those that display text as a result of a formula you may have had difficulty. As Go to command with constant selected does not pick up formulas that result in text.

Then try this. Select the range the formula cells appear in on your sheet. Format, select Conditional Formatting menu. In the dialog box under Condition 1, select "Formula Is" from drop down. Next to it in the Formula Box, enter the formula =Istext(A1. Click Format button , choose desired formatting settings and click OK. To go ahead and apply the conditional formatting click OK to accept

View all Excel hints and tips

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