OT Computer Excel SS question

[John Moorhead]

Folks -

I have been working on a board foot calculator with some additional formulas (shipping, markup, etc) and for the life of me I can't fathom MS's "Help" in trying to figure out how to protect the formulas and headings so that I can use the sheet as a "fill in the blank" estimating template.

I DAGS, but got bleary eyed. Can any of you more literate types tell me how the heck to do this so that I don't spend the rest of my life staring at the stupid MS paperclip asking me if I want help, and then, apparently, stonewalling.

Gaaaahhhhh....

John Moorhead

PS: Once I get this figured out, I will share a copy of it with anyone that wants it...

[mp]

Protect the worksheet (click on tools, protection), then right-click, format cells, protection, on the cells you want to protect.

[Groggy]

What him say. But to speed things up a bit, extend the selection by holding the CTRL key down then clicking on all the cells you need to unlock - then right click etc. This means you only need to do it once.

Greg

[Bob Davis]

This may vary by version of Excel, but in my version (2002), all the cells are locked by default, so when you turn on protection, you cannot get to anything. I have to explicitly unlock cells first, then turn on protection.

Bob

[WoodChuck34]

I'm pretty good with Excel, but I'm not sure I understand what you are asking.

I hate office assistant, so the first thing I would do is turn it off.

Are you asking how to make a formula (start the cell with "=" and then type your formula) or are you trying to anchor certain rows or columns (then you would need to use the "$", but this is hard to explain without a concrete example)?

If its helpful, I'll be in the office all day. Email me a copy of your spreadsheet and I'll help you out and email it back to you.

[Luigi Zanasi]

On Fri, 13 Feb 2004 11:33:08 GMT, "Bob Davis" scribbled:

Like Bob says, first "unlock" the cells you want to enter data in. To do that, go to "Format", "Cells". Click on the "protection" tab. Take the check mark off (by clicking on it) the "Locked" box.

Then enable protection by going to the "Tools" "Protection" menu.

Luigi Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address

[Bridger]

I'd like a copy.....

better yet, don't install it in the first place. it's hidden pretty deep in the installer, but there is an option to leave it out.

[LtNtHacker]

I would suggest you design 2 sheets, one that looks like an invoice with cells that you plug your variables in and another in the same workbook that contains the formulas. Protect (Go to Tools\Protection on the menu) all the cells on the invoice sheet (including the results cells) and then unprotect only the cells you will enter the varibles in (bd. ft. and shipping costs, etc.) The formula sheet should be protected and could even be hidden because you should not have to make changes to it.