HOW TO COPY PROTECT EXCEL SPREADSHEETS

[CHD01]

I have engineering spreadsheets for engineering calculations which I would like to copy protect. EXCEL has a copy protection method which allows you to assign a password to copy protect the spreadsheet. Unfortunately, I have found that if a sheet is copy protected all you need to do is to open up a blank spreadsheet and then copy the and paste the protected sheet into the new sheet. This removes all copy protection.

Does anyone know a way around this within EXCEL??

If not, can anyone recommend an inexpensive program to copy protect spreadsheets and workbooks??? The more you learn, the less you are certain of.

 

[IRstuff]

Have you tried hiding the worksheet with the calculations and then referencing the results on a second sheet and then protecting the workbook?
TTFN

 

[MortenA]

If you are worried because you dont want others to "steal" your work then maybe acrobat would be the solution. You can convert the spreadsheet to a PDF file that can only be viewed but not changed - and formulas cannot be viewed.

Best Regards

Morten

 

[etch]

It all depends what you want to do, if you dont want others to use it, then portect the sheet so a password has to be supplied to actually open the sheet, if not id go with IRSTUFF

 

[CHD01]

To IRstuff: What you propose sound as complicated as what I do now. Currently to provide a printout of my calculations but keep others from using my spreadsheet, I copy the spreadsheet and then create another spreadsheet and "paste special" the "format" and "values" separately (this hides the formulas and logic).

To MortonA: Is what you propose easier than what I'm doing as explained to IRstuff? If so, where do I get Acrobat?

Thanks to all.


The more you learn, the less you are certain of.

 

[dsi]

You can get Adobe Acrobat Writer from just about anywhere. The main site is adobe.com, but you can probably find a better deal through pricegrabber.com. DimensionalSolutions@Core.com
While I welcome e-mail messages, please post all thread activity in these forums for the benefit of all members.

 

[IRstuff]

If all you want to do is to present the results and not have live calculations, Acrobat is certainly an option, but you could simply copy the spreadsheet into Word and paste special as a bitmap, which is what the Acrobat file winds up being in anycase.

TTFN

 

[reichertc]

IRStuff:

Hiding a worksheet and then protecting it may work, but it is relatively simple to crack passwords on worksheets. (I lost a password one time and it took me about 5 minutes searching the net to find a utility to do it.)

Perhaps a better way...

If you can find a way to make it work, you can use add-ins. I have created spreadsheets that had pretty complex calculations, hidden the sheet, and saved it as an add-in. For my particular application, it worked pretty well. And you can password protect the add-in so others can't see it. (Your basic user won't even have a clue how to look for it.) The password protection on the add-ins is better than on the worksheets. It will probably take you a while to get your add-in working properly, but once it does, boy is it slick. And once you've gone through the painful process of doing this once, you'll find all kinds of new uses for this technique.

You might want to resubmit this question in the Tek-Tips forum. Some of those guys over there are wizards with excel.

 

To reichertc
Password protection on the add-ins is no better
than on worksheet and for seeing just click
Alt+F11.

 

[CHD01]

I do not use Word because it will not retain the formatting in my spreadsheet which is important to me. I think in summary I may be just as well off doing what I'm doing. Thanks to All - I did get some additional ideas. The more you learn, the less you are certain of.

 

[IRstuff]

Both paste special bitmap and Acrobat distiller should preserve format as printed.

TTFN

 

[Samiran]

My opinion is that spreadsheet is a only a tool - we do not recreate the wheel by using it. The calculations what we may be doing is actually quite known only the techniques may be unknown. I feel by letting others to use your spreadsheet only elevates you to a level where you still remain superior. If you really want to use a copyright Excel is not the right application. Better adapt to other ways to make you sell.

Samiran