Full protection of sheets

[Marvinexcel]

Good day.

I have some excel project and is circulated in a group of people. Some sheets contain complicated formula so I protected the sheet and allow them to just view for their reference. My concern is that some have removed the protection .....

Please advise on how to fully protect sheets preventing other people to easily change or remove the password.

Thanks in advance.

 

[jproffer]

If they know the methods you mentioned, I'd say you're out of luck....IMO. Excel "security" isn't all that robust. It's OK for the average user, but if they're able to remove it by those methods, there's no way to stop it...again, just my opinion.

On the bright side (maybe)...if they're advanced enough to remove the password like that, maybe they know enough not to mess up formulas, etc.

 

[Marvinexcel]

I tried the same method on a sample protected file but I'm out of luck to remove the password either by using VBA from the internet nor by changing the file extension to zip file and removing the protection. I want at least the same level of protection on what I had tried on.

I'm not into hacking password, I just want a high level of protection on my excel sheets because I've worked hard for it. Teaching them is of different subject.

Here is what I did on the sample protected file:
1. I tried to unprotect the sheet but the "Unprotect Sheet" and "Unprotect Workbook" are greyed out and "Unprotect Shared Workbook" is asking for a Password.
2. I tried to changed the file extension from .XLS to .zip as mentioned in the internet but it does not allow me to do so for there is some sort of setting or protection where changing the extension is disabled.
3. I tried to use macro from the internet but the VBA window is protected and I cannot see anything.

How can I achieve this kind of protection, Please advise.

 

[RoryA]

An Xls file is not a zip file, it’s the old Excel binary format. It sounds like your sample workbook has been shared, which is not a good way to secure it as it will in all likelihood cause you other problems.

 

[Marvinexcel]

Thank you Sir RoryA for the reply and to Sir jproffer as well, but is there any way to protect a sheet aside from just clicking the "Protect Sheet" tab and enabling the protection in "VBA Project Properties"?

Can the power of macro be used at least to heighten the level of sheet protection? Please advise

 

[RoryA]

Not really, since a user can just disable macros.

If your users are removing the protection so that they can bypass business rules, they should be reported to someone who can caution them appropriately.