Data Protection | How can I let users sort but not touch?

Not so long ago I was asked by a user for help with her file. She wanted people to be able to sort and filter but not do ANYTHING else with it. Of course I went to try my usual things of setting up protection

Review – Protect Sheet – tick Sort, tick Autofilter.

Much to my surprise, that didn’t work. So after some rapid fire googling and some playing around, I eventually came up with this…

Highlight the area you want users to be able to sort and filter
Make sure the Filter is turned on (Data – Filter)
From Review – Allow users to Edit Ranges
Don’t use a password at this point (otherwise your users will have to use a password even to sort and filter)
Click New
The range you have selected should appear in the dialog box. You can give it a name at this point if you wish or just accept the default.
Click OK.
Then click Apply and OK

Whew, once you have done all that, you still have to apply sheet protection.

Go to Review – Protect Sheet
Choose what you want people to be able to do i.e. tick the Sort box and the Autofilter box.
Make sure the Select Locked Cells and Select Unlocked Cells are NOT ticked.
Enter your password
You will then be prompted to re-enter it.

Note that for sorting you will have to use the Data – Sort dialog box to sort the data. The filter should already be turned on and users without the password should be able to sort and filter but NOT change anything.

Now your users should be able to sort and filter (but not do anything else) . As always your questions and comments are most welcome.

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Data Protection | How can I let users sort but not touch?

Excel Products for Sale

MrExcel.com

MyExcelOnline.com

Xtreme Pivot Tables course

Debra Dalgleish – Contextures.com

Excel UserForms for Data Entry

PivotPowerPremiumRibbon

Chandoo.org

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