Hi, Having difficulties -- and looking for a proper fix please.
I have an Excel workbook saves as a template. It uses multiple calculations and conditional formatting to ensure that the spreadsheet is completed properly. Within this, on one sheet, is a 'Signature Line', which will (or should) indicate that the final saved document has been completed and "signed off".
In practice, this is not working for the end-user. We have the following issues:
- The Electronic Signature is calculated for the whole workbook, rather than the individual sheet. Whilst this is really annoying, I can 'fudge' a workaround for this (although it is a really ugly 'kludge').
- The standard, default, method of opening a spreadsheet involves the automatic recalculation of all formulas (and thus destroying integrity), irrespective of whether the cell contents have changed. This has the effect of invalidating any previously applied signature.
- To counter the problems in (2), I have tried changing the template Calculation Options to 'Manual', and re-saving the template. Re-opening either the template or a .xlsx workbook saved from the template appears to remember the 'Manual Calculation' setting -- however, this (currently) does not fix the problem, and I still am getting an 'Invalid signature' message -- despite being mentioned as a fix in multiple online support pages.
- I don't know why, but occasionally this setting to 'Manual' appears to revert to 'Automatic' on occasions. I have not discovered what causes this.
- I cannot use any VBA code to 'fix' this problem, because VBA is declared by my organisation to be a security issue, and is globally disabled.
- Likewise, I cannot disable the full internal recalculation behaviour with a registry key change (eg: FullCalcOnLoadOldFile = 0)
- As a side issue (but currently unable to test), I also need a solution to the problem described here: Excel digital signatures - Microsoft Community Whilst a certificate may expire, and not be valid for signing new documents, it should still verify that a signature on an historical document has a valid signature based upon the date it was originally signed (and not today's date).
Some of the community posts documenting this problem are many years old -- and none appear to have been properly and comprehensively answered anywhere.
- Is there a "fix" that I can apply that will actually work (for users other than me)?
- Are there plans to properly patch Excel so that Electronic Signatures will work and validate as expected in future?
Many thanks.
Resources referred to (all without success):
