Prevent user from printing spreadsheet

[simste01]

We are a k-12 school system. We are using both W2k/Office2000, or Wi
XP/Office XP.

We have a confidential spreadsheet that is used by six people. Four o
the users are allowed to view only, while two may view, modify, o
print the document. The viewing rights are handled by limiting Novel
network user access rights.

We have been asked to design a way to prevent the four view-only user
from printing the document. Writing a macro that disables printing i
easy enough, but it appears that all users can disable macros at will.


Is there a way within Excel to control which users are able to prin
the document?

If not, is there a way to force the enablement of a macro so it wil
run regardless of the user's efforts to disable it?

Thanks for your help

 

[Bob Umlas]

You can add a new worksheet, then hide all others. Password protect the
workbook so one can't unhide the sheets. (Or make then xlveryhidden in code)
On workbook_Open event, you can unhide the sheets (in VBE) and you can have
a Workbook_BeforePrint which sets Cancel property to True which will prevent
printing. If tghe user opens the workbook with disabled macros, he will only
see the newly-added sheet (which can contain an appropriate message).
Without knowing the password, he won't be able to see anything else. Make
sure the sheets are re-hidden on the close event.

HTH
Bob Umlas
Excel MVP

 

[BrianB]

You can prevent people seeing the contents of the workbook withou
enabling macros by *hiding* password-protected sheets and having the
made visible only by the on-open macro. Hide and save in the clos
event