How to sort protected worksheet in Excel 07? Doesn't work.

[jbachaud]

I have built a protected worksheet with data that is in a sort table. I have
set the protection to allow auto filtering and sorting, and Excel displays
the ability to sort a-z or z-a, but selecting these functions does nothing.
It does allow me to filter based upon data in the columns, but not to sort.
If I unprotect the worksheet, everything works fine, but I can't leave it
unprotected for the end-users.
HELP!

Thanks in advance

 

[JLatham]

You have two choices here (actually 3, but unprotecting the sheet doesn't
count).

#1 - unprotect the sheet then choose all of the cells that would be involved
in the sorting and use Format | Cells and on the [Protection] tab, unlock
them. Put your sheet back into protected state and they can be sorted. BUT!
all cells in the chosen range will need to be unlocked for it to work. That
is, if you unlock A1:B10 but your sort process choses COLUMNS A and B, it
will fail because A11 on down and B11 on down are not unlocked - you would
have to select the A1:B10 group before attempting the sort.

#2 - You could put a button or textbox on the sheet associated with a macro
that would:
2a) unprotect the sheet
2b) perform the sort
2c) put the sheet back into protected mode.

#2 allows you to leave even the cells that are to be sorted locked to
prevent accidental alteration.