Setting TAB Order on Protected Sheets w/ Unlocked Cells - and a tip...

in a previous post, a gentleman named Paul responded to a question re: Protected Sheets and Unlocked Cells.

basically, the question went something like this...'how can you quickly tell which cells are locked or unlocked in a Protected worksheet?'

Paul suggested that each subsequent hit of the TAB key will select the next Unlocked cell in the worksheet...very, very cool.

now taking this 1 step further, does anyone know of a way to alter or create the TAB order in Excel? i know in PowerPoint or VBA or maybe even in MSWord, there are ways for the user/programmer to change the TAB order (e.g., in the creation of Objects, etc.). how about Excel?

based on Paul's advice, i've thought of a little trick/tip. if you have a massive spreadsheet with hundreds or thousands of populated cells that requires you to use a lot of scrolling up and down, left and right, try this. think of some high traffic cells or blocks of data that you go to a lot (if it's a whole array, choose the upperleft cell of that array). Unlock the cell(s) and then Protect the sheet.

now, when you need to get to some cells very quickly, just hit the TAB button; you'll be transported there very quickly (sure beats scrolling!).

this is very similar to BREAKPOINTS when debugging VB code. in other words, Unlocking cells creates 'obstacles' or 'orange cones' that you can set up yourself.

han