Hide Columns and Protect cells v2003

[Mike]

Hi, I have some confidential info within cells in columns that should not be
viewed by staff. Can you advise the best way I can somehow hide these columns
and not allow staff to simply "Unhide" the columns. Can I password protect
hidden columns?

 

[Dave Peterson]

You can protect the worksheet with a password, but this type of protection is
easily broken.

If you have stuff that you don't want others to see, don't put it in excel. If
you have to put it in excel, then don't share the file with others.

 

[Garrystone]

Hi, select all the worksheet and go to Format|cells|protection and
unprotect everything. then highlight those cells that you do not want
changing and go back to format|cells|protection and check the
protection option. Next select the column you want to hide and
Format|Columns|hide this column and then go to Tools|protection|Protect
sheet.

This will hide this column with the protection password that you
choose. However, one word of warning, someone could actually write a
formula to specify the column data, since they are only hidden. I.e. if
you had hidden column D. you could type in column E '=D1' and fill down
and hence see all the information in column D. I do not know how to get
around this as yet.

Garry

 

[Gord Dibben]

Garry

See Dave's response to this thread re: don't include sensitive data in the
workbook.

That's how you get around it.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP