I've made an excel 2016 workbook for staff holiday planning. I want staff to be able to look at it so they can see at a glance when periods of leave are available, but I don't want them to be able to add anything to the workbook. They must supply me with leave forms & I'll be the only one able to enter into the workbook.

I've tried using password protection, but that means the staff need to know what the password is & it doesn't stop them from being able to make changes. I've also tried protecting the worksheet/s & workbook also using a password. This also doesn't stop them from making changes.

I want them to be able to open the workbook but not be able to make any changes. I also don't want to have to save the workbook with a different file name every time I make a change. Some of the options I've tried to-date have made me save the file with a different name each time I've entered anything into it.



If someone could steer me in the right direction it would be most appreciated.

Why do they need to know the password?

That's the thing they don't need to know the password, however when I did password protect it they were unable to open it & look at it without the password. Hence my problem. I thought by password protecting it they would still be able to look at it (maybe read only) but it won't let them without the password. At present I'm stuck.

The simpliest method is to click on TAB (up top) REVIEW. Then PROTECT SHEET.

It will ask you for a password. Enter your password. Then it will request you confirm it, enter the password again.

That sheets is now protected.

You will need to do this for each sheet.

If you want an more automated process involving VBA macro code, let me know.