Locked cells in Excel

Hello all!

If I remember correctly, in MS Works (which I used ten years ago), cells could be given different colours to indicate if they were locked or not. That feature was useful to get a quick overview rather than going the cell-format route for each one.

I have searched MS Excel for the same but have not found anything. Does anyone know if that feature is available in MS Excel?

(I have noticed that an unlocked cell containing a formula is indicated by a green corner but that's not what I need.)

Thanks for your time,
Christer

 

Hi Christer

Congratulations on your new position - and welcome to the clan

From Works 6.0 onwards individual cells cannot be locked and although this is possible in Excel (2003) I can find no way of automatically colouring them.

However there s software available to achieve this - not free ....

http://www.addintools.com/excel/assist/celllens_locked.htm

 

Hi Pete,
thanks for the welcome ...... ...... !

My memory may fail me but I seem to remember that earlier versions of MS Works (around 1995 and used onwards) had the feature that I discuss. The computer that I used at that time was stolen ...... ...... with all its secrets which means that I can not check.

A Google search yielded tips on how to create macros to do it but that's a bit of a grey zone for me. However, it indicates that it can not be done "at the flick of a switch ".

Christer

 

Hi John,
welcome to Windows BBS ... ... !

Thanks for the tip but that is not what I want to acchieve. What I had in mind was to temporarily make all locked cells yellow, enabling me to check that the respective cells are given the correct formating. When done, I would go back and undo the yellow colour.

I know about locking/protecting but from time to time, I still forget to protect.

Christer