Hiding Column

[nirola]

HI,

We're using attendance sheet wherein one of my staff manually put in the login time of all the staff In Column A along with all other work done by him in a day in cloumn B and errors in column C and in cloumn D i my self puts in the remarks for incentive purpose.

Now i want that the person who is responsible to maintain this sheet should not be able to see my comments in Column D.

I tried hiding the column after protecting the sheet so that he should not be able to unhide this column -which worked, but then i found that they all were aware of my comments , when i asked them how they know this, this guy told me that he used to copy the sheet onto new woorkbook and then he could see even the hiden column D.

Regards,
Nirola

[pike]

Hi nirola,
excel is not a secure environment. you need use two workbooks

[nirola]

So there is no option available in EXCEL....... to hide my comments

[Whizbang]

Here is one option. Using the "Hidden" feature of a cell, we can hide the forumla from being read and/or copied. Simply have a switch of some sort to change the comments column to "hide" and "unhide".

Attached is an example. Note that the sheet is protected for example purposes. I have not set a password. Simply unprotect the sheet to see the formulas in column d.

[nirola]

Here is one option. Using the "Hidden" feature of a cell, we can hide the forumla from being read and/or copied. Simply have a switch of some sort to change the comments column to "hide" and "unhide".

Attached is an example. Note that the sheet is protected for example purposes. I have not set a password. Simply unprotect the sheet to see the formulas in column d.

I tried copying this sheet and it worked .... hurray!!!!

Can u please cofirm how to use this hidden feature...

Thanks

[nirola]

Ok ..thaks i can see the formula (if) it is perfect...

Thanks for sorting this out Whizbang!!!!

[Whizbang]

Right click on a cell or range of cells. Select "Format Cells". Go to the "Protection" tab. Check the option for "Hidden".

[martindwilson]

another option is to mirror sheet 1 to another sheet just use =sheet1!a1 dragged across and down use that sheet to put your comments then make the sheet very hidden .they probably wont find that as its not obvious its there

[Whizbang]

"Probably" is not "Will not".

To do as martindwilson suggests, you would need to protect the structure of the workbook so that the could not unhide the hidden sheet.

[pike]

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[Whizbang]

Another solution might be as part of the protection settings. When you go to protect your sheet, deselect the option "Select Locked Cells".

This prevents them from being able to select the cells, and therefore copying them to another location to view. The only flaw I see is that if you lock your cells, but the cells around them are not locked, then Excel allows the locked cells to be selected as part of the range.

For example, column B is locked, but columns A and C are not. Even though B is locked and you deselected the option "Select locked cells", the user can select and copy column B if he also selects from A and C.

As long as you don't allow them to wrap around your protected cells, you should be fine.