Using clear text boxes as cell protection.
Posted by Tony on January 06, 2000 4:02 PM
In Excel 4, I used to draw a clear, unfilled text box over cells that I didn't want users to access. It worked like a protected sheet of glass that if you clicked on it nothing would happen. After upgrading to Excel98 I have tried to no avail to make this work. Yes I remembered object and worksheet protection. It only seems to work for me if the text box is fill with color or text, which won't work for me in this case. Any Ideas? Thanks in advance.
Posted by Ivan Moala on January 06, 2000 4:29 PM
As a suggestion ??;
Try assigning a dummy "Empty" macro to it or
a msg macro say the user can't got here.
Note: A clever user could still access this by removing the unfilled checkbox.
Ivan
Posted by FrankC on January 09, 2000 6:31 AM
IN the textbox properties, under "protection" - choose "locked"
This way, if the worksheet is protected, the textbox is locked too.
I don't understand what you want to do for sure. If all you want is prevent users
from changing the contents of a single cell, protect your entire sheet from the menu
then select all the cells its ok for users to change, go under format, protection, and do
not have them locked.
Posted by Tony on January 12, 2000 6:54 PM
My procedure works like this or I should say used to. I select the text box tool from the drawing toolbar and make a rectangle to cover cells that I do not want anyone to access. I give no fill, no border and I don't type any text in it. It is basically a clear protective box. I use the default protection which is-protect box and protect text inside. When I protect the entire worksheet a user won't even be able to click and select a cell underneath. I also protect the cells underneath the clear text boxes. this is actually somewhat unnessary but it was a nice feature to use when making worksheets for a broad range of users. Unlike when someone tries to select a protected cell and enter something and will get a warning box about this cell is protected, etc., my procedure made it so that they couldn't even get that far. When they clicked on the invisible text box nothing would happen. Anyway it was a great trick to use for templates that a lot of people would use everyday and it made, I think a more professional worksheet.
