How to lock password

[Slade]

Hi,
I am sure this has been covered already but I can't seem to find it.

I have put together a workbook in Excel 2000 that will be sent out to
co-workers, users and viewers. I want the users to be able to make
changes to the cells but not the viewers, they just need to be able to
see the final product. I have protected each worksheet using a password

(Tools|Protection|Protect Sheet| put in a password.)


My question is this. When a user, who knows the password, goes to
re-lock the sheet after making changes types in the password
incorrectly/changes the password it is changes for that sheet. For
example if they original password was 1234 and they re-protect the
sheet and type in 2345 Excel 2000 picks up the new password. The other
users won't know of this change and the person who made the change
might not realized they did it.


Is there any way to make sure this doesn't happen? Can I set the
password so it can't be changed?


Thanks!

 

[Puppet_Sock]

I have put together a workbook in Excel 2000 that will be sent out to
co-workers, users and viewers. I want the users to be able to make
changes to the cells but not the viewers, they just need to be able to
see the final product. I have protected each worksheet using a password

(Tools|Protection|Protect Sheet| put in a password.)


My question is this. When a user, who knows the password, goes to
re-lock the sheet after making changes types in the password
incorrectly/changes the password it is changes for that sheet. For
example if they original password was 1234 and they re-protect the
sheet and type in 2345 Excel 2000 picks up the new password. The other
users won't know of this change and the person who made the change
might not realized they did it.


Is there any way to make sure this doesn't happen? Can I set the
password so it can't be changed?

Invent a login.

Keep the password that Excel knows about secret. Have a password
for users, and store this in VBA code. Have a sheet in the workbook
that allows the users to type in this password and login. When they
do this, only unlock the cells that they are allowed to change. Lock
them up again when the workbook is closed.

Viewers won't know any passwords and won't be able to unlock anything.

Users will only know the password that unlocks those cells they are
allowed to change, not the password that unlocks the sheets.

Nobody but developers will know the real password, and without that
you should not be able to see the VBA code.

In principle, you could extend this scheme to multiple levels of user.
Some users could change some data and not other data, some users
could change more data, some viewers could see some sheets and
not others, and so on, just depending on how fancy you need it.

The only hard part will be intercepting the close event and making sure
everything gets re-locked. And even that is not too hard.

Just be aware that passwords in Excel should not be considered as
serious security. There are several fairly easy ways to get around
them.
So you should not be storing stuff in this system that would cause
large harm if somebody did break security. Like, you should
not be storing medical records, credit card numbers, etc. Excel
security should be considered a guard against accidental harm,
not against Dr. Moriarity.
Socks

 

[Slade]

Thanks! I will try your suggestions.
Slade