Here is a simple experiment. Open a new sheet in Excel. Click on the arrow in the upper left corner of the spreadsheet to highlight the entire worksheet. Right click and choose Format Cells >>> Protection >>>Unlock.

Now every cell is unlocked. Highlight A1-A6. Right Click and choose Format >>> Date >>> 3/14/01 for a format. (mm/dd/yy)

Now go to protect sheet.The protect sheet dialog box appears. Make your selection and choose ok. In my version of Excel 2007, I have many options, the 2 which are checked by default are Select locked cells and Select unlocked cells. The list continues but all after the top two are not checked, including format cells.

Click ok. Now in e5 type in some gibberish. Press return, than copy the contents of that cell and paste it into any cell from a1-a6. Format has now been changed.

Or try to enter the date 17/3/11 which is not according to format. What happens? Format has changed, Why? How do we prevent this?

Thanks

DD