"locking" parts of a document

whats up, I plan (after i stop being a noob) to create fitness plans through excel and sell them. When I run through the process in my mind, i have a few problems. 1. If i create a plan through excel, I dont want it to simply be a non-interactive program. I dont just want to have something for the client to look at. I want them to be able to interact with the fitness plan I give them. For example, If i input the equation myself, I want the person who bought my plan to be able to type in numbers to determine their one rep max and other things like that. But the problem is, if I send it to someone, how do I lock half of it down? And by "lock" i mean make it so they cant change it/erase it. But I dont want to do that to the whole document, because like I said, there are going to be certain utilities that i want to try to implement for them (like finding a 1 rep max) and if the whole thing is locked down to the point where they cant add anything to the document, then I cant do that. sorry if this is confusing, thanks for your help.

Hi

you can use Excel's "Protect Cells" function. Use Format cells to "Unlock" those cells you wish to allow client manipulation and leave formula etc "Locked". You will need to protect the sheet (with a password" ) to prevent access by clients.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Originally Posted by FoxSeaLady

Hi

you can use Excel's "Protect Cells" function. Use Format cells to "Unlock" those cells you wish to allow client manipulation and leave formula etc "Locked". You will need to protect the sheet (with a password" ) to prevent access by clients.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

That was a ton of help. If i lock the cell with the formula, could they still put numbers in it to have the formula work?

Hi

The concept is to lock the cell containing the formula however leave those cells with the precedents for client data entry. ie if the formula was:-

Cell A1 = B1+C1 then lock A1 but leave B1, C1 unlocked. Your client can then change either B1 or C1 and the formula will still calculate. Have a look at the options available by
1. Right click the cells and select Format Cells , then Protection to either lock or unlock
2. Protect Worksheet on the Excel "Review" tab and a range of options are presented where you can tick a box to select whether the cell s effectively locked. Note you can protect formula, and by selecting any combination of options effectively control what can be done on the spreadsheet..changing formula.. adding rows.deleting rows etc.

To be effective the sheet protection needs to include a password else anyone can change the controls. however if you use a password do not forget it. There is no help readily available should you forget.

Cheers

you are the best thanks