Custom view when opening a protected workbook

[Kimberly Poppante]

Our purchasing department maintains a locked workbook which multiple departments use for ordering information. The data in the cells is controlled and updated by purchasing, but everyone accesses the workbook in "read only" format to look up information on vendors, item numbers etc so they can fill out requests. Each department has certain items that are unique to their department but many items are also used by multiple departments. Also, multiple vendors for a single item are listed but one is the primary vendor. Is there a way to save a custom view so when the spreadsheet is opened the item numbers of the materials commonly ordered by that user  would be highlighted? None of the data or formatting can be changed and we don't want the other data to be hidden. It seems like a macro might work but I'm afraid each person would have to build their own and most of us are not tech savvy enough.

[#2]

Hi Kimberly,

If you have Excel 2010, 2013 or 2016 then you can use Power Query to connect to the master file and have you're own "view" of the data. (filtered / sorted) .  With Excel 2013 and 2016 you can also add "Slicers" to tables to make them really easy to filter.

Let me know what version of Excel you are using and if you have used Power Query in the past