Limiting access to worksheets

[Bingo Accent]

I am trying to put together a basic spreadsheet to track colleagues'
views on how we work together as a team, their workload levels, etc.
with simple RAG status indicators using conditional formatting.

I have created a worksheet for each member of the team (where they
enter scores out of 10 against various set questions, and have the
opportunity to add comments), which feed into a summary sheet at the
end.

The intention is for everyone to take turns completing their own sheet,
until the full team view is available.

The issue has been raised that people don't want to have their
scores/comments visible to colleagues, and that this will make people
less likely to express their true feelings.

Is it possible to limit individuals' access to specific worksheets
within a workbook? I've seen the "Allow Users to Edit Ranges" within
the Protection options, but it's not clear if this grants read access.

Presumably the other option would be multiple workbooks linking in to a
separate summary...

Any suggestions gratefully received.

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

Multiple workbooks would be the best.

Any other type of protection is easily broken. Even separate workbooks will
require a bit of physical control

 

[Otto Moehrbach]

Be aware that the security features of Excel are not intended to be
foolproof. They can be broken without a great deal of effort by anyone with
knowledge of Excel.
Having said that, there are a number of ways to do what you want. One
way is to have a blank sheet. When the file is opened, the blank sheet is
all that the user would see and all that the user would have access to, as
far as he knows. The remaining sheets would be "Very Hidden" and not
accessible to him. None of them.
You could set this up so that the user knows to enter his name or his
code or whatever you want, into some cell. Or perhaps a different cell for
each user with only the user knowing which cell is for him.. When he does
that, his sheet would become visible and on the screen. When he is through
doing his thing and saves the file, his sheet would become "Very Hidden"
once again.
The code (macro) that does all this can be protected (hidden) with a
password so that only you can access the code. Post back if this sounds
like something you think would work for you and you need help with it.
HTH Otto

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

In my opinion, any protection implemented with code is easily defeated by
disabling macros. Not really even worth the the time invested implementing
it.

 

[Otto Moehrbach]

Tom
You're right about that. That's why I told him that at the start. I
don't know his situation so he will have to be the judge. Thanks. Otto

 

[Bingo Accent]

Tom/Otto,

Thanks both for your replies.

To be honest I wouldn't need any particularly refined security. I can't
see anyone being bothered enough to hack into someone else's page - it
just makes sense not to have them on open view.

Having said that, I think the individual workbook approach makes sense.

Iain