Restricting a Spreadsheet so users cannot save changes

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

GeneR - 31 Oct 2006 22:05 GMT

I have a spreadsheet I've created that pulls information from one worksheet
to another and then runs several calculations on the data. I want to be able
to post this on our intranet and allow users to look up their own
information, but do not want them to be able to make or save changes. I have
restriced the spreadsheet so they can only change the one cell they need to
lookup their information, but is there a way to lock it completely so they
will not have the option to use the "SAVE AS" feature to save it on their
hard drives? All I want them to be able to do is look up their information
and to print....

Reply to this Message

Harlan Grove - 31 Oct 2006 22:16 GMT

GeneR wrote...

>I have a spreadsheet I've created that pulls information from one worksheet
>to another and then runs several calculations on the data. I want to be able
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>hard drives? All I want them to be able to do is look up their information
>and to print....

There's no way to disable Save As without macros, and users can always
disable macros before opening your workbook. The best alternative is
calling do-nothing UDFs in most formulas in your workbook so that those
formulas evaluate to #NAME? errors when macros are disabled. Even so,
more sophisticated users could alter the VBA code, even if you try to
password protect your VBA modules.

Moral: spreadsheets weren't designed to be black boxes. That may change
with Excel 2007 if you have all the other server infrastructure
(overhead) necessary to take advantage of Excel web services, but it
wouldn't exactly be an elegant solution.

Reply to this Message