Question

I have a protected worksheet that users would like to copy and paste into. I have no control over the workbook they are copying from.

The protected worksheet has some rows that are available for data entry, and other rows that are locked and greyed out to the user. The users would like to be able to paste over the top of the entire worksheet from another random workbook and have all the cells available for data entry filled in, while the locked cells are undisturbed. In the current state, the user gets an error when they try to paste, because it cannot paste over the locked cells.

Example:
Worksheet 1:

Act1 100 100 100
Act2 100 100 100
Act3 100 100 100

Worksheet 2: (The second row is locked)

Act1 300 300 300
Act2 200 200 200
Act3 100 100 100

After copying/pasting Worksheet 2 should look like this:

Act1 100 100 100
Act2 200 200 200
Act3 100 100 100

The values from worksheet 1 are populated and the locked rows are undisturbed.

• I’ve been thinking along the lines of having a hook where on paste, the locked cells are unlocked so that the paste can happen, and then are reverted to their original values and relocked.
• Is there some way I can loop through the cells in the clipboard and only paste cells where the target isn’t locked?
• It is preferable to not create a separate button for paste, so there is less impact on the users, but if that’s the only way, I’m not opposed to it.
• Currently, I plan on grouping the locked rows together, so that the data entry cells are contiguous, but then the accounts will be out of order, which is not preferred.

Answer 1

Requirements:

1. Allow pasting into protected sheets
2. Retain content in the locked cells after paste operation
3. Retain protection status of the sheet

Method:

1. Handle all possible paste operations in user defined module, instead of Excel’s way
2. Since unprotecting removes contents from clipboard paste to a temp sheet
3. make a note of user intended paste location
4. make a note of locked cells in the protected sheet (content and address)
5. unprotect the sheet
6. paste to intended cells from temp sheet
7. remove temp sheet and protect main sheet

I referred to Jan Karel’s Catch Paste sample for reference. You might want to add all the ways he is catching paste operations.

In the ThisWorkbook module add below code

Private mdNextTimeCatchPaste As Double

Private Sub Workbook_Activate()
    REM Add Paste event handler
    CatchPaste
End Sub

Private Sub Workbook_BeforeClose(Cancel As Boolean)
    REM Restore Paste event handler
    StopCatchPaste
    mdNextTimeCatchPaste = Now
    Application.OnTime mdNextTimeCatchPaste, "'" & ThisWorkbook.Name & "'!UnProtectPasteToSheet"
End Sub


Private Sub Workbook_Deactivate()
    REM Restore Paste event handler
    StopCatchPaste
    On Error Resume Next
    REM Cancel scheduled macroREM s,
    REM because we might be closing the file
    Application.OnTime mdNextTimeCatchPaste, "'" & ThisWorkbook.Name & "'!UnProtectPasteToSheet", , False
End Sub

Private Sub Workbook_Open()
    REM Add Paste event handler
    CatchPaste
End Sub

Add a new Module and add below code

REM Add Paste event handler
Public Sub CatchPaste()
REM these are the ways you can Paste in to Excel
REM refer to http://www.jkp-ads.com/articles/catchpaste.asp for more details
Application.OnKey "^v", "UnProtectPasteToSheet"
Application.OnKey "^{Insert}", "UnProtectPasteToSheet"
Application.OnKey "+{Insert}", "UnProtectPasteToSheet"
Application.OnKey "~", "UnProtectPasteToSheet"
Application.OnKey "{Enter}", "UnProtectPasteToSheet"
End Sub
REM restore all default events
Public Sub StopCatchPaste()
Application.OnKey "^v", ""
Application.OnKey "^{Insert}", ""
Application.OnKey "+{Insert}", ""
Application.OnKey "~", ""
Application.OnKey "{Enter}", ""
End Sub

REM Here we will check the sheet is protected, if it is then paste to a temp sheet,
REM unprotect main sheet, paste the values, and restore locked cells
Private Sub UnProtectPasteToSheet()
On Error GoTo ErrHandler
Dim bProtected As Boolean, oSheet As Worksheet, oTempSheet As Worksheet, sPasteLocation As String
Dim oCell As Range, oCollAddress As New Collection, oCollValue As New Collection, iCount As Integer

REM check protection status
If Not ThisWorkbook.ActiveSheet.ProtectContents Then
    Selection.PasteSpecial Paste:=xlAll
Else
    bProtected = True
    Set oSheet = ThisWorkbook.ActiveSheet
    REM save paste location
    sPasteLocation = Selection.Address
    REM unprotecting clears Clipboard in Excel!! strange but true..
    REM So paste it to a new sheet before unprotecting
    Set oTempSheet = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets.Add
    REM oSheet.Visible = xlSheetVeryHidden
    oTempSheet.Paste
    REM unprotect the sheet
    oSheet.Unprotect

    REM make a note of all locked cells
    For Each oCell In oSheet.UsedRange
        If oCell.Locked Then
            oCollAddress.Add oCell.Address
            oCollValue.Add oCell.Value
        End If
    Next

    REM paste
    oTempSheet.UsedRange.Copy
    oSheet.Activate
    oSheet.Range(sPasteLocation).Select
    REM you need to paste only values since pasting format will lock all those cells
    REM since in Excel default status is "Locked"
    Selection.PasteSpecial xlValues

    REM remove temp sheet
    Application.DisplayAlerts = False
    oTempSheet.Delete
    Application.DisplayAlerts = True

    REM restore locked cells
    For iCount = 1 To oCollAddress.Count
        Range(oCollAddress.Item(iCount)) = oCollValue.Item(iCount)
    Next
    REM restore protection
    oSheet.Protect

End If
Exit Sub

ErrHandler:
    Debug.Print Err.Description
    If bProtected Then
        ThisWorkbook.ActiveSheet.Protect
    End If
End Sub

Note: I am adding REM instead of ' to keep the Stackoverflow formatter happy.
Give it a try and let me know how it goes..