Protecting a spreadsheet from being copied

[wheels1]

Hi to you all. Can I protect a spreadsheet from being copied or pirated and being passed onto someone else without my permission. I was thinking of by way of inserting a date at which time the program will fail to operate. Or a corrupt formula maybe activated after a preset time. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Smitty]

Nope - Not securely anyway. It can be done, but all a user has to do to circumvent it is disable macros.

Unfortunately, Excel isn't a secure application and it's never been marketed as one.

There have been lots of discussions about it here over the years - one key topic to time bombing a workbook is that if a legitimate end user has entered any of their own data and you kill it, you can be on the hook for that data loss.

There are a few spreadsheet compilers out there, although I've never tried one.

Probably the most secure way of packaging functionality is to create an Add-In, and they're easily distributable.

HTH,

 

[eChef]

Yes there is a way via DoneEx Excel Compiler, in my opinion the only way.
Here is the link:
http://www.doneex.com/index.php?opt...10&Itemid=43&gclid=CJHG5fXhxqMCFQxB6wodrVF_tw

cheers,
Matt

 

[wheels1]

Yes there is a way via DoneEx Excel Compiler, in my opinion the only way.
Here is the link:
http://www.doneex.com/index.php?opt...10&Itemid=43&gclid=CJHG5fXhxqMCFQxB6wodrVF_tw

cheers,
Matt

Thanks Matt. Perhaps I am asking for the impossible.