Shutting off all calculations

[Peter]

I'm a teacher and want to create a worksheet form where students can enter
answers to (their handwritten) math problems.

For the student's version of the answer spreadsheet, I want all Excel
functions shut off, so that students cannot use Excel to calculate their
answers. All my students have PCs they can bring into class so that they
could get their versions of the file off a shared server.

I could then speed up grading hundreds of questions by having my own version
of the spreadsheet with True/False getting pasted back alongside each
student's answers in each of their versions, for their feedback.

The Calculation Options tab under Formulas in Office 2007 Excel does not
seem to give the option of shutting everything off. All I want them to have
is data entry capability.

Thanks!
- Peter

 

[Bernie Deitrick]

Peter,

Select all the cells and format them as text, choose the protection tab and unlock all the cells,
then use protection, and lock the sheet. Make sure that you disallow formatting changes. That will
prevent the sheet from being reformatted and used for calcs, and will only allow the students to
enter text into the cells.

You may also want to use event code to prevent the students from opening and using another workbook.
Post back for some help with that if you are interested.

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP

 

[ryguy7272]

You will need VBA:
http://www.decisionmodels.com/calcsecretsh.htm

Something like this should work:
Private Sub Workbook_Open()
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
End Sub


HTH,
Ryan---

 

[Bernie Deitrick]

Ryan,

Excel in manual calculation mode will still evaluate a formula when it is entered.

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP

 

[Peter]

THANKS so much--I will try it out tonight...bell is about to ring for the
next class!

 

[Peter]

I opened Developer and pasted it in under VBA but it does not do
anything....I am ignorant as to how to get subroutines to run....

 

[Bernie Deitrick]

Peter,

In your case, the event code will not help, so it does not matter. Format
the cells as text, unlock them, and protect the sheet.

Bernie

 

[ryguy7272]

Hit Alt+F11, double-click 'ThisWorkbook' and paste into the window that
opens. Save, Close, Open. Should have mentioned it before.

To turn "off":
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual

To turn "on":
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic

HTH,
Ryan---