Prevent Editing of Worksheets w/in SpreadsheetML

[R Rush]

I need to be able to lock worksheets against being edited (well, and allow
sections to be editable). This would be a trivial task, but I need to be
able to do it by manipulating the XML representation of an Excel document
(working against Excel 2003, for the record).

I can't simply use Excel to do this, save it to XML, and then see what's
changed, because Excel strips out protection information when you do that.

I've spent a great deal of time looking at the schemas, fiddling with a
SpreadsheetML file and seeing what elements and attributes pop up when... but
no luck.

I've figured out how to Protect the Workbook and how to Protect a Worksheet,
and I can find attributes that allow/disallow pretty much anything you'd like
to be able to restrict on cells... except for content editing.

I simply cannot find where I:

1) Tell Excel to prevent the editing of cells.

2) Tell Excel to allow the editing of specific cells while the rest of the
sheet is locked.

Does anyone know how to do this? I'm at loss.

Thanks!

Richard

 

[gimme_this_gimme_that]

Why don't you get an image of the Excel Worksheet and distribute that
instead?

 

[R Rush]

The requirements of what I'm working on. This isn't about distributing an
..xls file, it's about generating an .xls file for distribution.

This sort of thing can be done programmatically through OfficeInterop but,
as most of the work is being done to the XML version, it'd be silly to go
through the extra step of doing this one thing that way unless it's
absolutely the only option.

 

[gimme_this_gimme_that]

Do you know how to add VBA macros to the XL VBA representation?

 

[franciepants]

Hi R Rush - I was wondering if you ever found an answer to your question. I
too am trying to programmatically protect specific cells but have only been
able to protect the entire worksheet. In my scenario, I generate XML code via
Access which in turn creates an Excel spreadsheet. I have successfully
created the spreadsheet, added and formatted specific rows but the protection
tags seem to protect the entire worksheet. Any advice would be greatly
appreciated.

 

[Susan]

r rush's profile says he hasn't posted anything since this thread - i
doubt if he's still reading it (or even the newsgroup).
if you check his profile you might be able to get an e-mail address
for him.
just thought i'd save you waiting for an answer (altho you never know,
he may!).
susan

 

[franciepants]

Thx Susan - I'll do that

r rush's profile says he hasn't posted anything since this thread - i
doubt if he's still reading it (or even the newsgroup).
if you check his profile you might be able to get an e-mail address
for him.
just thought i'd save you waiting for an answer (altho you never know,
he may!).
susan

 

[R Rush]

I've still got notifications turned on, actually.

Didn't expect a response here, but I got it, anyway.

 

[R Rush]

No, I never found the solution to locking stuff down within the XML.

Ultimately, what I ended up having to do is:

1. Do as much as I can with the SpreadsheetML document
2. Programmatically open the SpreadsheetML doc as an Excel workbook and
apply locking / cell editing.

Not the best of worlds, but I've resigned myself to it.

In terms of advice, the only thing I can think of offering is the process
for locking down a spreadsheet programmatically goes kinda like this:

For each cell range you want to keep editable:
currentRange.Locked = false

For each worksheet you want locked
currentSheet.Protect(password)

And then
workbook.Protect(password)

It's sorta backwards: where you probably (and I do) want to specify certain
cell ranges that cannot be editable, Excel works the other way. In Excel,
you're describing what cells you want to continue to be editable. You have
to opt-in instead of opt-out.

Hope that helps!

Rush