Protect Number Format Only

[Greg Lovern]

I want to protect number format only, while allowing the user to
change the contents of the cells. Or, it would also work if I could
protect all formatting while allowing cell contents to be edited.

We have a workbook used by around (I'm told) 25,000 people, with many
more to come, which is formatted as text. Users paste numbers into it,
and it must preserve leading zeros, and must not convert to
exponential notation.

But users often paste from other formatted sources such as email,
which converts the cell to General number format, losing leading zeros
and converting to exponential notation.

Worksheet protection doesn't seem to allow editing locked cell
contents even with all the restrictions turned off, and of course
worksheet protection doesn't apply at all to unlocked cells.

I looked at Allow Users to Edit Ranges, but it turns off protection
for the affected cells; it doesn't allow me to protect number
formatting (or all formatting) while allowing the user to edit the
cell contents.

I thought about using the Worksheet Change event to trap all pastes
and enter them as text, but by the time that Event is triggered, the
damage is already done and I don't know if there were leading zeros or
how many.

Any suggestions on how I can protect number formatting, or formatting
in general, while allowing the cell contents to be edited?


Thanks,

Greg

 

[Jim Cone]

Why not use the worksheet_change event to reapply the formats?
--
Jim Cone
San Francisco, USA
http://www.realezsites.com/bus/primitivesoftware
(Excel Add-ins / Excel Programming)



"Greg Lovern"
wrote in message
I want to protect number format only, while allowing the user to
change the contents of the cells. Or, it would also work if I could
protect all formatting while allowing cell contents to be edited.

We have a workbook used by around (I'm told) 25,000 people, with many
more to come, which is formatted as text. Users paste numbers into it,
and it must preserve leading zeros, and must not convert to
exponential notation.

But users often paste from other formatted sources such as email,
which converts the cell to General number format, losing leading zeros
and converting to exponential notation.

Worksheet protection doesn't seem to allow editing locked cell
contents even with all the restrictions turned off, and of course
worksheet protection doesn't apply at all to unlocked cells.

I looked at Allow Users to Edit Ranges, but it turns off protection
for the affected cells; it doesn't allow me to protect number
formatting (or all formatting) while allowing the user to edit the
cell contents.

I thought about using the Worksheet Change event to trap all pastes
and enter them as text, but by the time that Event is triggered, the
damage is already done and I don't know if there were leading zeros or
how many.

Any suggestions on how I can protect number formatting, or formatting
in general, while allowing the cell contents to be edited?


Thanks,

Greg

 

[Greg Lovern]

Hi Jim,

By the time the worksheet_change event is triggered, the damage is
already done. Then, I don't know whether there had originally been any
leading and/or trailing zeros or how many, so I don't know how many,
if any, to put back.

Simply reapplying the text format is easy, but it's not enough. I also
need to prevent or fix the loss of leading and/or trailing zeros.


Thanks,

Greg

 

[Greg Lovern]

Here's an example of the problem:

In some other rich-text application such as email or Word (but not
Excel), enter the text 00123456789876543210000 (including leading and
trailing zeros). Then, copy it and paste it into Excel, in a cell that
has been formatted as text.

Yes, you can easily change the formatting back to text, but the damage
is already done -- what happened to the leading and trailing zeros?
How do I find out how many leading and trailing zeros there were, so I
can replace them?


Thanks,

Greg

 

[Greg Lovern]

I want to protect number format only, while allowing the user to
change the contents of the cells. Or, it would also work if I could
protect all formatting while allowing cell contents to be edited.

Any other suggestions?

We have over 25,000 users and growing, almost all of them outside our
organization. Educating all of them to always do a Paste Values would
be like -- who's the mythological character who spends eternity
pushing a boulder uphill only to have it roll back down each time?

BTW, ignore what I said about trailing zeros; that was a brain fart.
Trailing zeros are obviously not truncated. The problem is leading
zeros.


Thanks for any suggestions.

Greg

 

[Gord Dibben]

Sisyphus


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Alan124]

Hi Jim,

By the time the worksheet_change event is triggered, thedamageis
already done. Then, I don't know whether there had originally been any
leading and/or trailing zeros or how many, so I don't know how many,
if any, to put back.

Simply reapplying the text format is easy, but it's not enough. I also
need to prevent or fix the loss of leading and/or trailing zeros.

Thanks,

Greg










- Show quoted text -

Hi,

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Hope this will help.

Alan