Expiration date for Workbook

[LaurieM.]

Have a Excel workbook that I want to share with others but I need it to "expire" after a certain date (time sensitive data)
Can I do this in Excel

Help!

 

[John Wilson]

Laurie,

A much asked question.........

The answer is yes!!!.....Absolultely!!!!!
But it won't work.

Explanation......
The functionality to do what you want can be coded in VBA but
if the user(s) in your target audience are knowledgeable in Excel
they'll surely be able to circumvent it.
The VBA code can be locked and password protected, but a
quick search of Google will turn up plenty of threads on how
to crack the VBA password. Once the user can view the code
that you used to expire the workbook, all the efforts that expended
to do so will have proved futile.

For a good dialog (complete with examples and caveats),
take a look at this thread:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?M2D213AB6

John

 

[macropod]

Hi Laurie,

As you'll have gathered, there can be problems trying to get spreadhseets to
'expire' after a certain time, because you need a macro to cause this to
happen.

However, if you put the sensitive data into a macro instead of directly in
the worksheets, then disabling the macro when the workbook is opened means
the data won't be displayed either. And, if you add another macro module to
the workbook with the expiry code, it can delete the module with the
sensitive data and silently save the 'cleaned' workbook. BTW, protected
macros are much harder to crack that protected worksheets.

Cheers

Have a Excel workbook that I want to share with others but I need it to

"expire" after a certain date (time sensitive data).