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@abarker said:@steenbergh said:And of course, Excel doesn't enforce correct user input.
Actually, you can come pretty close to enforcing correct user input, at least the way it sounds like you need it. You just need to take advantage of The Data Validation utility, which will allow you to enforce data validation rules on given cells and/or cell ranges. It can even enforce data type rules such as requiring a date to be entered in a given field. If the user tries to enter other data, they get a message saying that the data is invalid. You can even specify the error message that is displayed. Add to that the cell formatting capabilities, and you've come pretty close to what it sounds like you need. Then, just set the appropriate Protect Sheet and/or Protect Workbook settings, and your data entry folk will be able to punch data into Excel all day long without being able to touch the formatting or the Data Validation settings.
I've actually done that so as to allow users to do bulk uploads/downloads/manipulation of data. Originally the system was using CSV files with no validation, i changed it to use proper xlsx files with data validation and it's been working pretty nicely as an efficient way to do bulk editing without having to rebuild the excel UI in our web application.