Protected Sheets suppressing object usage

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Guest

Using a combination of my own intellect and the Microsoft "Learning Tools" online section (I'll trust anything before Microsoft), I've tried everything available to make an object usable after protecting an Excel 2000 spreadsheet, but I keep getting the "The cell or chart you are trying to change is read-only yada yada..." error. In this case, the object is a checkbox, and checking the box will enter an amount into a linked cell. The linked cell itself is unprotected. I've tried unprotecting the checkbox, and that hasn't worked; I've unchecked the "Object" box while protecting the sheet itself, and that hasn't worked either. As it stands, a protected sheet will not allow a user to check or uncheck boxes, and therefore my sheet is useless. What can I try next? Will anything else work?
 
Having the linked cell unlocked (format=>Cells=>Protection tab, uncheck
Locked), protecting only the contents of the sheet (uncheck objects), should
work.

Worked for me with both a control toolbox toolbar checkbox and a chechbox
from the forms toolbar.

If you think you already tried it and it failed, I would suspect that one of
the above properties was not changed.

Tested in xl2000.

--
Regards,
Tom Ogilvy



Jeff Barnaby said:
Using a combination of my own intellect and the Microsoft "Learning Tools"
Click to expand...
online section (I'll trust anything before Microsoft), I've tried everything
available to make an object usable after protecting an Excel 2000
spreadsheet, but I keep getting the "The cell or chart you are trying to
change is read-only yada yada..." error. In this case, the object is a
checkbox, and checking the box will enter an amount into a linked cell. The
linked cell itself is unprotected. I've tried unprotecting the checkbox,
and that hasn't worked; I've unchecked the "Object" box while protecting the
sheet itself, and that hasn't worked either. As it stands, a protected
sheet will not allow a user to check or uncheck boxes, and therefore my
sheet is useless. What can I try next? Will anything else work?
 
Tom, thanks for the help, but your instructions are exactly what I'm
already doing: linked box is not protected, "Objects" box is unchecked
when protecting the sheet. I've checked it a hundred times. Thing is,
this works fine at home, where I also use Excel 2000, but doesn't work
here, where I work. The few cells I do unprotect on the sheet in
question remain unprotected and accessable, but the objects do not.
I've even unlocked the objects in addition to unchecking the "Objects"
box when procting the sheet, and that doesn't work either. If anyone
else has encountered this particular problem, please advise if you've
found a workaround. Also, my version of Excel is listed as 9.0.6926
SP-3. I can't update the software, as my employer has customized that
aspect of the Windows environment to prevent updates.
 
PROBLEM SOLVED!

Get this: of the several checkboxes peppered throughout my form, one box
in each category (of the form, it's not important), had the default
value of "CHECKED" on the "CONTROL" tab. I changed the value to
"unchecked", protected the sheet, and lo and behold, the entire thing
now worked -- the sheet was protected, and the checkboxes were usable.
THEN, TO TOP IT ALL OFF...I unprotected the sheet, and changed the value
back to "checked", because I really wanted key boxes to be checked by
default, and then I protected the sheet again. The whole thing still
works. Can you believe this, or what?
 
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