I was hoping that someone could point me in the right direction. I have been challenged by my IT team to provide a 100% secure Excel page where a user could not see the connection string (including ID and Password) when using my Excel file that pulls data from our data systems. By simply PROTECTING the worksheet doesn't work since it only "grays out" the information but is still visible to the user. I did come up with the use of:

Private Sub Workbook_Activate()
Application.ExecuteExcel4Macro "SHOW.TOOLBAR(""Ribbon"",False)"
End Sub


Private Sub Workbook_Deactivate()
Application.ExecuteExcel4Macro "SHOW.TOOLBAR(""Ribbon"",True)"
End Sub

The problem is that when a user first opens the file, they get a security message that asks the user to "Enable Content". The issue with that is is that the Ribbon is still visible and nothing stops the user from clicking on Data Connections and drilling down to fine the user/password for the data string. But if the user were to enable the content once, then the document automatically loads with the ribbon hidden and works great. However, the fact that on the initial use that the user can navigate to the data connections area and see the connection credentials makes this unacceptable. Therefore, my questions are this:

1. Is there a way to automatically enable macros when the file is opened for the first time without the user having to do anything (including not making the user setup trusted locations etc.)?
2. Is there another way that I can encrypt the user/password using VBA where the user can't determine what the real credentials are even if the get to the data connections area of Excel?
3. Is there something else that I'm not thing of???

I appreciate your assistance to my problem.

Thanks,
Doug