Protect data in cell from viewing it

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael
  • Start date Start date
M

Michael

Is there any way to forbid users to see data in some
cells while the program still can use these cells for
make calculations?

The main idea is the following. I make a price list for
our distributors. There is a column with base prices
which are multiplied by a certain ratio with final prices
column as the result. Is there any solution to hide the
base prices so the end users won't be ever able to
discover them?

Michael.
 
Michael

Try Insert, Name, Define. Give this the name Markup and in
the Refers to text box type 2.5 to mark up the Price by
250%.
In the Sales price column type B2 * Markup

You can then hide the colun with the Purchase Price and
Protect the worksheet.

Regards
Peter
 
Hi Michael,

the answer is yes and no. You can protect the worksheets
with the information, and set the FormulaHidden property
for those ranges you want to hide. Excel will not display
the contents of these cells, and it will apply some
encryption to the data when you save.

While this provides some protection it cannot be
considered as a really secure solution. The encryption
used by Office is not strong and a determined attacker
will pretty easily find tools to break it. (These programs
are mostly presented as a way to retrieve your content
when you forgot your password... you can make a quick
search at download.com and you'll find several :)

If your end users aren't technical the standard protection
would at least reduce the likelihood of the information
escaping. But if the information is of great value to your
users and they are not stupid, you have to assume that
they will be able to disclose it.

Good luck!

Dag Johansen
dagOystein . johansen @ sage . com
 
Dear Peter,

Would you please be more spcecific in instruction. :-)
I fail to understand "Insert, Name, Define". What are
exact actions I should undertake?

Thankx in advance! ;-)

Michael.
 
go to the menu, select Insert, then within the resulting menu, select Name
and within the next menu displayed, select define.
 
Back
Top