Posted By D H Hi Paul - in my company - anything I produce as part of my work duties is classed as "belonging to the company". Check your employees contract of employment. Dave

Posted By Barrie (Badger) Etter Paul DH is correct on the 'this is mine'. As for protecting right click on the icon the work is saved. Go to properties, then advance, tick encrypt. Hopefully that should do the trick. BUT check with your IT dept first as they become jittery when tinkering with background stuff. Badger

Posted By Paul D The company and everybody working here can have the document no problem, it is just a matter of having one document not loads of different ones on the same drive. As is the case now!

Posted By Glyn Phillips Paul, I have had similar issues in the past. My ex MD regularly changed cell values to see 'what would happen if...', then saved the file undoing all my work. This was solved by me keeping the original version and saving a copy in a shard area that both he and I could access. (got our IT dept to create this area and access permissions). I then synchronized the files to copy my version over the shared copy every time I made a change. This way he could play as much as he liked without deleting the original data. In addition I password protected the entire spreadsheet to prevent any others accessing my file. Seemed to work for over 5 years. GP

Posted By GeoffB4 If a person is determined they will be able to convert a pdf document back to word.

Posted By Tony Priest Paul, I am not sure that any of the above advice will be a complete solution to your dilema. First because your post is asking about how to prevent a workbook from being copied and not who owns it. Second I think the solution is an IT one and will be about user permissions attached to network drives. The workbook will have to be placed in a folder on the network where only you (and the IT guys) have full permission set on that folder share i.e. you are able to view, create and modify files within the folder. Then other people who need to use/print the workbook only have permission to view the spreadsheet/files in that folder. Therfore they will not be able to make a copy and put the copy into the shared folder only you can do this because of the permissions that are set on the share. Hopefully this will be be the solution, the only downside is others can make a copy of the workbook and save it elsware and the share permissions will likley need to be set up by your IT department. Hope tis helps.

Posted By Andy Brazier I'm afraid that the answer is probably for you to use some different software. Spreadsheets are great, but they have their limitations. If you have developed some form of look up matrix it would probably be quite easy to turn this into a web page which people could use to get a result but could not tinker with the code. The following gives an interesting view of the risks of using spreadsheets. http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howlett/?p=406

Posted By Sen Sar Crim You have mail Sar

Posted By Kirsty Davies2 Crim, It;s not fair. You want to protect your documents and yet you want to know methods to unprotect other's work. Have a good weekend!

Posted By Kirsty Davies2 Dave, We are only talking about 'norma' workers here, who will be using work computer for copying/emending/printing etc. We are not discussing 'IT Experts' here. You being expert in this field, we would appreciate your expert advice on the best possible practical option to avoid such 'nicking' of work. Is there any BETTER alternative option compared to PDF? Also, how many people out there use programmes other than Acrobat Reader?

Posted By Kirsty Davies2 Crim, That was only a joke. Yes, you can convert a PDF to WORD/ EXCEL etc. There are several free soft wares online. Just google in 'pdf converter'. They will convert the file for you. (it may slightly alter the format though.) However, if the PDF file is a 'scanned' image, then it will not be possible to convert it. In regards to protecting the document, Protected PDF is the best option. I can send you a document. Try to amend,copy or even print it.

Posted By Dave Merchant Adobe Reader penetration data is not released to the public, but I can say that around 95% of non-professional PDF users have Adobe without getting slapped for it. Non-Adobe is much more prevalent on Linux machines, and a lot of Mac users struggle along with Preview (until someone sends them a rich-enabled PDF that only works in Adobe). My point was that if someone wants on-screen static data, it's easy to get it. They may not have the software already installed to bypass security but they can drag it off Google in 5 minutes, so it's simply a case of how valuable the data is. With static data (text, tables, forms etc) you're basically stuffed. ProtectedPDF (a third-party DRM solution that runs inside Adobe Reader) and Adobe's own RMS will prevent printing and control the opening of multiple copies, but requires a company to invest in seriously expensive license servers - not a practical option for an individual with a few documents. However if the info can be seen on screen, it can be re-converted by OCR even if the application refuses to print it. Dynamic content is a lot easier to encapsulate (a PDF with a 3D model or video inside cannot be extracted via printouts!) but text is text. If I can read it, OCR software can read it too. People have flirted with other platforms (Flashpaper, etc) but the fundamental issue is value-protection balance. If you don't mind the data being pinched a few times, then distribute with reasonable levels of protection and take the hit from those who put in the effort to crack your files. If the data are so valuable you can't accept any possibility of theft, your readers will have to come to your office - that's how many Govt departments deal with the problem. I know that people photocopy my books. I don't care, because I know more people buy them than steal them, and I include a percentage in the retail price to allow for it.

Posted By Crim Rob W You are right it's not worth worrying about it, just get on with life and try to enjoy it.