Permanently hiding a column in Excel

[rachelhhall]

Hi guys,

I need to email a Worksheet to a contractor. I do not want him to know my profit margin on it. Of course, I can hide the column, but once emailed he can then unhide that column. Is there any way of permanently hiding a column or resolving this problem simply?

Any advice appreciated.

Thank you,

Rachel

 

[Norie]

Can't you just delete the column?

And if the contractor only needs the values you could to a paste special to replace any formulas before you do that.

 

[Datsmart]

Excel is not secure enough to guarantee hiding a column of data.
I would not send the worksheet, I would send a section of it copied as a picture.

Select the data you want to send.
Hold the shift key and click the Edit menu, you will now have a Copy Picture option.
Using that option will copy the selected range to your clipboard. You can paste that in your email to your contractor.

 

[Cbrine]

rachel,
Excel is not a secure environment. I would suggest you remove the column entirely prior to sending it. If it's needed in the calc's, then I would suggest you add the data to a hidden workbook, and reference it that way. You can then use VBA to hide the sheet.
Sheets("sheet2").Visible = xlSheetVeryHidden
or
copy and paste values on all the dependant formula's and remove the column.

Again, this will stop a basic user. There are other protection options available, but all of them could be cracked in about 2 minutes by an experienced excel user.

HTH
Cal

 

[rachelhhall]

Hi all,

Thank you so much for all of your tips and advice. Great, thank you.

Rachel