Worksheet Protection

[mike0123m]

I wrote an excel program that contains controls and I password protected the spreadsheet. But, now whenever I open the spreadsheet and select a different value in the combo box, a box pops up that says "The cell or chart you are trying to change is protected and therefore read-only". How can stop that box from popping up every time I try to select a different value in any one of the 7 combo boxes I have in the spreadsheet?

 

[xenou]

Hi:
Welcome to the board.

By default, all cells on the worksheet are locked.

1) Unprotect the sheet
2) Select the cells you want to be able to change (and only those cells),
3) Under Format | Cells | Protection (Or Ctrl + 1),
4) Clear the checkbox for locked
5) Protect the sheet again.

Normally, if you want most cells locked and a few unlocked you would use the above procedure. If you wanted most cells unlocked and a few locked, you reverse the procedure by first unlocking all cells , then locking just those you want protect.

Hope this helps.

 

[mike0123m]

But the message that pops up only comes up when I try to select a different value from the combo box. I unprotected the sheet and changed the locked option to false for each combo box in the properties window but that didn't do anything either.

 

[xenou]

There is an option under sheet protection to "allow user to edit objects"...is that checked?

 

[mike0123m]

I see an option for "allow users to edit ranges". I'm using excel 2003 by the way. There is also an option to "protect and share workbook" but then any changes will be tracked.

 

[xenou]

After Tools | Protection | Allow Users to Edit Ranges (and ranges have been added),
you will click on Protect Sheet...
Then this is where you can check or uncheck boxes for various objects and actions. There is a check box here for allow users to edit objects.

This might be the same as Tools | Protection | Protect Sheet... (same list of boxes to check/uncheck comes up.

What do you have here for allow users to edit objects? Regards.

 

[mike0123m]

The real answer is to make sure that the range of cells that the combobox is reading from is unlocked.