Cell (cells) protection by means of “Data validation”

In Lesson 86 of the Excel 2010 Course and Lesson 82 of the Excel 2007 Course, you can see how individual cells or entire worksheets are protected but, with a simple trick you can have one or more cells with a ‘kind of protection’ over the data.

Select the cell or cells that contain data that you want to protect.
Select the “Data” tab in the “Ribbon” and select “Data Validation”.
In the “Data Validation” dialog box, under the “Settings” tab, select the “Text Length” option in the “Allow” text box. Under “Data”, select “Equal to”.
For “Length” type “0” (Zero).

On the “Input message” tab, select the “Show input message when cell is selected” check box and fill the “Title” field and enter an appropriate text for the “input message:”.

On the “Error Alert” tab, select the “Show error alert after invalid data is entered” check box, and in “Style:” select “Stop”, for eg, and in the “Title” field, enter a appropriate text for the “Error Message” and click OK.

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