Question

I have a spreadsheet which has a column on it (say column A). The idea is this column is populated by a user with various scores. Once the user is happy with their answers in column A, I want them to confirm that the answers are correct (ideally by clicking a button). Once that button is clicked, I want to use VBA to protect column A against being edited again. I’d rather not use the protect worksheet option, as there is additional data in the spreadsheet where I need to keep some cells locked but editable (they use data validation lists).

I did find this bit of VBA but this is based on worksheet change – if I could somehow use this but only have it activate once the user has confirmed the data is set, that would be ideal:

Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Excel.Range)    
    If Intersect(Target, Range("A2:A14")) Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
    Application.EnableEvents = False
    MsgBox "Hey, leave me alone!", 48, "Sorry, I'm protected."
    Application.Undo
    Application.EnableEvents = True
End Sub

Answer 1

If what you posted suits your needs then:

In a module, something like this:

Public active As Boolean
Sub Button1_Click()
   active = True
End Sub

And within your spreadsheet code:

Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Excel.Range)
    If active Then
        If Intersect(Target, Range("A2:A14")) Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
        Application.EnableEvents = False
        MsgBox "Hey, leave me alone!", 48, "Sorry, I'm protected."
        Application.Undo
        Application.EnableEvents = True
    End If
End Sub

A likely better solution would be to designate a cell within your sheet that the button populates, so the code would actually be something like:

If Range("A1") = "Locked" then
    ....