excel protection allow combo box

I'm not sure this is the right place to ask this, so if not could you please link to somewhere else I can ask this?

here it goes: I've got an excel spreadsheet that I'm send my users to fill in data and I would like to protect most of the sheet beside the places where they should fill in the missing details.

I've protected the document and allow editing permission to some of the cells. problem is I've got several combo boxes that I would like the users to choose items from, and when I protect the document any selection from the combo boxes becomes invalid with a "data read only" error.

I've tried to allow the cells from which the comboboxes get their input, but it stays the same problem.

question is how can I protect the document and allow selecting from combo boxes?

anyone?

ComboBox: is it ActiveX?

How do you protect your worksheet?

If you have an ActiveX and use VBA to protect your worksheet then you may use UserInterfaceOnly to protect user interface, but not macros.

for example:

Code:

---

ActiveSheet.Protect Password:="", UserInterfaceOnly:=True

---

Or instead of ComboBox you can use data Validation.

I'm not using vba at all (at least not directly)

I've created the combox with the forms toolbar, and protected the document from the tools menu- protection.

Perhaps you could use an in-cell dropdown, using the data - validation menu.

With this method you can set the cells protection to unlocked, so protecting the spreadsheet will not prevent the user from making a choice (although they must make a choice from your list or leave the cell blank, provided "ignore blanks" is checked).

EDIT: Just relised that this is what CavemanPZ is suggesting at the end of his answer!

I'm not familiar with creating an in-cell dropdown: could you please describe shorty how to create a cell dropdown / link me to somewhere?

1. Select the cell that you want your in-cell dropdown to appear in, ensuring
that the cell's protection is not "locked" (this can actually be done at
anytime, before, after, whatever.
2. Go to data - validation in the top menu.
3. Under the settings tab, from the allow combobox select list.
4. Either select a range that contains the items for your list or enter the
items in the source box, separating each one by a comma.

You can also set your own message if the user tries to enter a manual entry. In-fact, you can play around with the various options to see what suits you best.

Hope this helps.

trying it out...