Protect a workbook

nanatopsy

I've very limited knowledge about spreadsheets and although I can protest them against changes, don't know how to prevent someone unauthorised from accessing them. Can anyone help please? TIA:)

tronator

nanatopsy wrote: »

I've very limited knowledge about spreadsheets and although I can protest them against changes, don't know how to prevent someone unauthorised from accessing them. Can anyone help please? TIA:)

I assume you're using MS Excel. I wouldn't trust the built-in password protection too much. There are several programs available to crack it. A few years back I "cracked" a write protected spreadsheet by myself. I only needed to save it as HTML (or XML?) and either the password was there or I had to remove the encrypted password and import it back into Excel. Can't remember completely. Google is your friend...

Back to your question, it depends on what you want to do with the file. Do you want to send it by email or do you want to protect it from other users on your computer?

nanatopsy

tronator wrote: »

I assume you're using MS Excel. I wouldn't trust the built-in password protection too much. There are several programs available to crack it. A few years back I "cracked" a write protected spreadsheet by myself. I only needed to save it as HTML (or XML?) and either the password was there or I had to remove the encrypted password and import it back into Excel. Can't remember completely. Google is your friend...

Back to your question, it depends on what you want to do with the file. Do you want to send it by email or do you want to protect it from other users on your computer?

Thanks Tronator. Laptop is overheating and shutting down so having to put it in for repair/clean. The guy is coming to collect any minute now and don't know how to say , Don't look at that spreadsheet!:rotfl:!!

tronator

nanatopsy wrote: »

Thanks Tronator. Laptop is overheating and shutting down so having to put it in for repair/clean. The guy is coming to collect any minute now and don't know how to say , Don't look at that spreadsheet!:rotfl:!!

This would make them look even more

You could remove the hard disk if the repair doesn't involve your Windows installation.

You also could copy all documents to a USB stick and erase them safely with Eraser afterwards. If you have enough time, you could use Erase also to erase "unused" space on your computer, if it lets you before shutting down.

But on the other hand you should only give your laptop to repair to a company you can trust. Do they have a policy about this issue on their website?

littlepanther

It would have been worth passwording as most people wont go to the trouble of cracking it unless they were aware you had it and then wanted to see what you had.

But you could have put it on an external drive or used an online storage system like dropbox.

iamcornholio

Too late now it seems, but just do a "Save as" from the file menu and password the file so that it can't be opened. Not much simpler than that