Protecting Data Validation and Conditional Formatting

[newbie]

Hi,

I recently created a new master spreadsheet so that team members can update their information in it instead of maintaining their own forms. The new spreadsheet has a # of conditional formatting and data validation built in (special thanks to Chandoo for the validation rule for Social Security #s !). Part of the move to the new spreadsheet requires the users to transfer certain pieces of information over from their old spreadsheet which most of them will achieve by copying and pasting. Now for the question - Is there a way to protect the conditional formatting and data validation rules and still allow the user to copy & paste to it without them ?


I have thought about copy > paste special > Values ...but am concerned not all will follow it all the time.


Please help - thank you very much

 

[ickle]

I had similar problems a few years ago with a team of 30 staff. The way I got around this was to have them all put raw data into a dummy spreadsheet (ie without formatting etc) then copy>paste special>values into the master myself properly - minimised risks.

 

[newbie]

Ickle,

Thanks a lot for the suggestion - I looked into that possibility - however a number of data validation routines are setup to ensure the quality of data is accurate. Users entering the information get alerted if they are updating invalid information. If I were to gather to update the raw data - I would need to go back and forth for them to fix the issues. Any thoughts ?

 

[tuli]

just a though, you don’t have to enter the data on a clean sheet manually, you can copy, paste special value, then copy again (from original) and paste special formats.


about the "data validation "

do you know how to set up a data validation ?