How to add @ symbol in excel and lock cell to prevent changes by shared users?

Copper Contributor

Hi, 

 

1) I have a shared excel spreadsheet and would like to add asperand or "at sign" @ symbol in front of my data entry, e.g. @toyota, but I get an error message saying "Alert. That function isn't valid.". How do I get around this

 

2) And because the excel is shared among many users in my google drive, for a given column say column B, I do not want any other users to make any changes apart from the original user who made those entry. For example there are User A, B, C, D and E. When User A made a certain entry in column B, all other users are not allowed to make any changes apart from User A. When User B made a certain entry in column B, all other users are not allowed to make any changes apart from User B.

 

Can someone show me how to do this? 

2 Replies

@anonimoosi 
I can answer the first part. You need to use an apostrophe before the text. For example '@Toyota
The apostrophe will disappear once you press enter.

As far as sharing columns, you may want to setup three different sheets for each user and then pull that data into a "master" sheet. If you need people to view all of the data you can give them view permissions on the master but they will still be able to edit their column on their own sheet.

Thanks @m3llowman.

Re sharing columns, the issue is that the spreadsheet is shared with a community so anyone can place their entry and it's impossible to create limitless of sheets for each users in the community. One of the main objectives for placing restriction is that we want to reward the users who provided good data, so his/her name and entries cannot be changed by other unethical users who want to claim the reward by changing it to their name and entries. Do you have an alternative suggestion how I can realise this?