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Stefan_Pastia's avatar
Stefan_Pastia
Copper Contributor
Jul 27, 2021
Solved

Protected cell without setting a password

Hello, please help me! In an editable/fillable excel in one cell I inserted a formula linked to an other excel document. If that "other" excel document was deleted, of course I would have an error to my initial editable excel document. But instead, the initial excel document is now protected in that specific cell (not entirely workbook), without me setting any password in the past. Why that? What was happened, in order to know for future to be aware...

Feedback please?

 

All the story is on One Drive files!

4 Replies

  • NikolinoDE's avatar
    NikolinoDE
    Platinum Contributor

    Stefan_Pastia 

     

    Protect formulas or cells without leaf protection from alteration

    In some situations, the use of the Sheet protection can be undesirable. In order to protect cells with formulas or any other cells from unwanted changes in these cases, the following procedure can be used.

    1. Use the Format cells / Protection command to define which cells should be provided with cell protection and which should not. To remove the cell protection, simply remove the tick from Locked.
    2. Select the desired cell range or all cells in the worksheet.
    3. Now open the corresponding dialog window via the menu Data / Data tools / Data check / Data check.
    4. Under Allow, select the Custom entry and enter the following formula: =NOT(CELL("protect",A1))
    5. With a click on the OK button, the defined cells are now protected as required.

    Important:

    The procedure presented protects the cells from accidentally overwriting the cells. However, the locked cell can still be deleted with the delete key. Protected cells can also be overwritten using the copy and paste function. The function presented is therefore not a particularly good protection, but is sufficient in practice in many cases. If you want to have absolutely secure protection you cannot avoid a password.

     

    Finally, it is also possible to lock only one cell securely with a password on a worksheet.

    Lock or unlock specific areas of a protected worksheet

     

    I would be happy to know if I could help.

     

    Nikolino

    I know I don't know anything (Socrates)

    * Kindly Mark and Vote this reply if it helps please, as it will be beneficial to more Community members reading here.

    • Stefan_Pastia's avatar
      Stefan_Pastia
      Copper Contributor

      Hello dear NikolinoDe,

      Appreciated your details but my problem is that "today" the cell is protected but "yesterday" wasn't protected at all by anybody. These excel document was created and use in One Drive.

      Why was autoprotected when I never set a password or command to do that?

      Thank you!

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