Protecting or Locking Cells with a formula

Hi,
I would like to know if it is possible to lock a formula in place but still continue working with the rest of the document.

COXYPT,
Welcome to Numbers,
This is a very often asked question and sorry, the answer is no. However, take a look at the recent thread below for an interesting workaround:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6983825&#6983825
pw

Similar Messages

Protect sheet / lock cells?

Is it possible to protect or lock certain cells in Numbers so that other users cannot change my data? I want users to be able to input data in some cells BUT not have access to other cells.
Thank you for your time!

Do you know of any apps for iPad that allow users to protect or lock certain cells within a spreadsheet?
Thanks!

Is there any posibility to restrict a new selection in cell with new formul

Hi,
I have developed a report where it need some Cell references.
I have Net sales, Inventories, Receivables(These are RKF's) from these i have created New formulaes ad inventory days and receivable days
inventory days= (inventories/netsales)*90.
Receivables days= (receivables/netsales)*90.
I have used this in cell reference.
But the thing is now we need to find out
inventory days Basic Chemicals
PVOH/Emulsions
Chemicals Segment
Acetate
Ticona
Nutrinova
AT Plastics
Other
and so on only for inventory days.
now what i need to do is i have to create an RKF and need to restrict that with the Inventory Days, but here the inventory Days is a formula. bcos of which i am unable to do.
so what to do.
Is there any posibility to restrict a new selection in cell reference with a new formula
pls tell me soon

Hi Ajay,
You can use the Cell Editor to define this. You have to create a structure of KFs and Formulas.
Hope this helps.
Kumar

How can I put text into a cell with a formula?

I'm trying to sort a budget in Numbers 3.1. I have a sum of column of cells that I'm adding up. The cell that has a total number looks like this: =SUM(F). I want to have that sum have a $ sign in front of it. I've ready everywhere that I could do ="$" SUM(7), but that doesn't work in 3.0, only in Numbers 09 I guess. Is there a new solution for 3.1?

Tyna,
Just Format the cell as Currency.
Jerry

Fill in blank cells with a "junk" value

Greetings
If I have a table with 20 columns, and some rows that have data in varying numbers of the columns
Col1 Col2 Col3 etc
1
4 4 4
3 3
How can I fill in the blank cells with a junk value, say ffff?
I figure its going to involve the IF and IFBLANK functions, but I'm missing something. Perhaps I need to have it fill in a secondary table, instead of trying it with the "live data" table?
Thanks!

If you are trying to do it in the same table you will have to pre-fill all cells with a formula or fill in the blank cells with a formula such as RAND. ISBLANK will not work in this case because you can't have a cell checking itself.
You could do this in a separate table with a formula such as
A1=IF(Table 1:: A1 = "", 10*RAND(), Table 1:: A1) and fill this to all the other cells in that table.

Cells not calculating formula

I have a column of cells with a formula to add 5% to any value entered into those cells. However when i enter a value, no calculations are done. The only way i can seem to make this work is if i enter the formula one at a time to each cell after that cell is populated. Is there any way to fix this. I cant add this simple formula to 100's of cells individually every time the value is changed...

You can't apply a formula upon the contents of the cell where it sits.
If your values are in column C, starting from C2,
In an other column, insert the formula = C2*1.05
or better :
=ROUND(C2*1.05,2)
then apply fill down.
Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mercredi 25 avril 2012
iMac 21”5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 12 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7.3
My Box account is : http://www.box.com/s/00qnssoyeq2xvc22ra4k

Protecting/Locking cells

I use excel to make forms. I like to lock a cell that has a descriptive so that the user can just tab thru to to cells that require their imput. I am thrilled with all the customization Numbers will give me for the look of the these forms. But I can not find anything in the documentaion about locking cells or protecting the sheet. Does anyone one know if this exists? I would love to put Excel away (as I have with Wrok) and use Numbers instead.

Hi Msredhd,
Welcome to Numbers discussions.
At present locking cells and locking the entire work sheet isn't supported. Please send a message to the Numbers team. Click Numbers then Provide Numbers Feedback. The more of us that request it the more likely it will be offered.
Sincerely,
RicD

Struggling with Applying Cell refences of formulas to multiple cells

Probably a basic question- I am new to Numbers.
Ive been struggling for ages with applying a formula or cell reference to more than one cell at a time. If I select multiple cells (shift or command clicking them) - then I am unable to create a new 'Cell References'. Pressing the equals = sign merely gives me an error sound. And the formula bar is not accessible
I have been struggling with this on and off now for about a week. Help - well it doesn't help and implies that I am doing the right thing, but it is not working. - Please help

marky3 wrote:
I ve been struggling for ages with applying a formula or cell reference to more than one cell at a time. If I select multiple cells (shift or command clicking them) - then I am unable to create a new 'Cell References'. Pressing the equals = sign merely gives me an error sound. And the formula bar is not accessible
I have been struggling with this on and off now for about a week. Help - well it doesn't help and implies that I am doing the right thing, but it is not working. - Please help
A better use for your time was to read carefully *Numbers User Guide* and *iWork Formulas and Fucnctions User Guide*.
We may insert a reference to a range of cells in a cell's formula but we can't insert a formula in several cells with a single task.
The correct protocol is :
insert the formula in the first cell of the range then use the fill down (or fill up or fill to the right or fill to the left) feature.
Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) dimanche 21 février 2010 22:21:40

Simple "Find" question -- How to find values in cells with formulas?

Sorry if this is a stupid question but I don't find the answer. I have a table with values that are all computed via complex formulas. I want to FIND, say, when the value is 19. I can't find a way to do it: If I use the "find" command and type 19, the program finds when 19 is written INSIDE the formulas, e. g., it finds the cell where a formula is thus defined:
=Table Correct Responses :: A19
but does NOT find the cell with VALUE 19.
Tried different syntax combinations without success. Any idea?
Cheers,
l.

My two cents:
Select the entire table.
Cells Inspector.
Define a rule like the one I uses here.
It will highlight the cells whose value matches the condition.
Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE lundi 26 mai 2008 17:53:33)

Tab past locked cells in numbers?

does anyone know if you can lock individual cells in numbers? i need to be able to navigate from unlocked cell to unlocked cell avoiding all locked cells.
it's easy in excel, we use complex vlookup formulas that return information to other cells and need to protect those formula cells from accidental deletion. protecting cells is also a nice way to limit tabbed navigation to unprotected cells only.
does anyone know if i can do this with numbers, can't seem to find anything that suggest it can do it.
thanks...

Apparently cell locking is not supported. From Macworld's review:
"There are also quite a few power user features missing from Numbers, such as custom number formats, pivot tables, cell naming, *cell locking*, password protection, splitting windows, and text orientation within a cell, among others."
http://www.macworld.com/2007/08/reviews/numbers08/index.php

Locking Cells in Numbers (Almost!)

While there's no real way to lock cells in the current version of Numbers, I put a little trick in place that at least keeps people from clicking on the cells to edit them (they can still move into the cells with the arrow keys).
1. Use the menu Insert > Shape > Rectangle and then position the shape so it covers the cells you want to "protect."
2. Open the Inspector and go to the Graphic tab and make sure Color Fill is chosen. The rectangle should be hiding your cells. Now use the slide at the bottom of the Inspector and set the Opacity to 0% so your cells show through.
3. Under the Arrange menu choose Lock to keep the rectangle from moving.
Now when people click on the cells they're actually clicking on the invisible rectangle and the cells don't get selected.
Like I said, it's not what we'd all like, but it gets us part way there -- if it's useful for you, you're welcome. =:)
Jay Jennings

John and Jay,
This is a very common complaint and perhaps you've already done this: but if not, be sure to go to Menu: Numbers > Provide Numbers Feedback. The more requests for a certain feature the Numbers techs get, the more likely they are to include it in the next upgrade.
pw

Is it possible to lock cells in a shared document?

I would like to share a document and only allow certain cells to be available for changes in the data in those cells. Some cells will have formulas I don't want changed. Is it possible to lock a cell or range of cells so they can't be changed? Thanks for any help you can give.

they added password protection for the whole document, but I don't know about individual cells. that would require sheet or table level password protection, which isn't available.
Jason

Locking cells

From a quick search, it appears several times people have asked whether certain cells and formulas can be locked. Apparently the question is no.
Has anyone pursued trying to build an AppleScript front end to a Numbers spreadsheet, where several users can collect data and then post to the spreadsheet, beyond their immediate access?
Granted AS has limited user interface options, but if you used Xcode, you could create whatever you wanted with Interface Builder.
Not a perfect solution -- a malfeasant could still corrupt the data -- but it might prevent lots of the mistakes that concern the people who want locked cells.
doug

Doug Tallman wrote:
Badunit wrote:
If you really want to use Numbers, if you can put the data entry in one table and the formulas in another, you can lock the formula table(s) while leaving the data entry table(s) unlocked.
I think this is the best solution, at least for now.
I don't know the guy's full set up, but I'm intrigued by the idea of creating an AppleScript front end, maybe using Xcode, and sending data to a networked computer running Numbers.
If documents may be open by several users simultaneously, you may be sure that they will be destroyed.
iWork components are not designed for this use.
The application is unaware of the fact that a document is open from machine A when machine B try to open it too.
Given that, internal links are fooled and when a machine saves, we get an empty document.
Don't forget what the license states:
B. iWork Single User License. This License allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software (whether trial or full version) on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time. This License does not allow the Apple Software to exist on more than one computer at a time, _and you may not make the Apple Software available over a network where it could be used by multiple computers at the same time._ You may make one copy of the Apple Software in machine-readable form for backup purposes only; provided that the backup copy must include all copyright or other proprietary notices contained on the original.
Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE jeudi 6 août 2009 18:05:28)

Numbers point to a cell with different formatting to create conditional format

Hi all, not sure if this has been brought up but my search efforts haven't found anything. I know conditional formatting is not supported in IOS numbers but I saw a buddy do a little trick a while ago and I've been trying to replicate it. On his iPad, he created a numbers spreadsheet that had a logic function (=if). And if that function was true it pointed to another cell with different formatting. The result was, the cell would become the same format as the cell it was pointing too. This created the effect of a conditional format in a sense. I can get this to work with limited effect, only if the cell is a "text" cell and not a formula. As well the background colour doesn't get picked up, only the format of the cell text itself. I'm trying to get in touch with him for help but in the mean time does anyone have any experience in this kind of method?
Cheers

As an example:
If A > B, then A-B, otherwise make it equal this other cell (D1 for example)
{=if(a1>b1,a1-b1,d1)}
And in that d1 cell I would make another formula that also does the same subtraction (a1-b1) however knowing it will be a negative number this time, I paint the cell bright red and hopefully the original cell will then look the same since it is now equal to this one.
Unfortunately it looks like this wont work. The closest thing to doing this trick I have found is pointing to a cell formatted as text, such as a blank cell. Then the original cell takes on the formatting characteristics of the text cell. The problem is the text cell is useless since it can't do any sort of math. I can't even set the cell to simply equal another one and format it as text only. So far it looks like the only conditional type of trickery I can do is make the numbers disappear by pointing to a blank text cell.
I hope that helps describe it a little better.

How to lock cells in BPC

Hi,
I am developing a BPC solution for client. I have a requirement to lock certain cells so that user is not able to enter/change any values in these cells. I don't want to lock the entire sheet. Please advise if you've resolved similar requirement.
Thanks,
Raman

Hi,
I'd also need to use Excel's data validation feature in a BPC input schedule--not to lock specific cells from user input, as in this example, but to allow users only to choose from a list of values.
Unfortunately, validation is not copied in data cells when expanding. All the rest is copied--formats, values, formulas. Only validation seems to have this problem.
What should I do to have validation being copied during expansion?
I am on BPC NW 7.5.
Thanks,
Davide
* UPDATE
I've solved this issue. The solution is described here:
http://scn.sap.com/thread/3209213
VaraPrasadraju Potturi wrote:
Hi,
Try Excel Data Validation to lock cells from editing.
eg: Only ACTUAL cols has to be locked.
     A     B     C     D
1     ACTUAL     ACTUAL     BUDGET BUDGET
2
3
4
Step 1:
   Select cell A2
Step 2:
On the Data menu, click Validation. From Settings tab select Custom as Allow and maintain Formula as =IF(A1="ACTUAL",0,1)
Step 3:
Goto Error Alert tab, Select style as Stop give title as Error and Error message as "ACTUAL Data cannot be changed"
Step 4:
   Click OK.
If Expansion is ON in your report/input schedule just maintain validation as above in first data cell and select Expand all to get copied into remaining all data cells .
hope it helps...
regards,
Raju
Message was edited by: Davide Cavallari

Protecting or Locking Cells with a formula

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for