OpenOffice.org's Calc cancels MS Excel sheet protection

[erikts]

I prepared worksheet for a client using Excel 2007. I locked certain cells and protected the sheet using Review|Protect Sheet menu.

For compatibilty, I opened it in OpenOffice.org Calc (version 3.2.0) and found out that it canceled the Excel's sheet protection; all locked cell can be altered.

Is it a bug in Excel or in Calc?

[Deozaan]

That's strange. I have the opposite problem. There's a spreadsheet made in Excel that when opened in Calc cannot edit some cells that are editable in Excel.

[erikts]

That's strange too. Can anyone open the file here (mediafire) or here (Let's Crate) in your version of Excel / Calc and confirm the behaviour?

[Bamse]

Protection can be removed in Libreoffice 3.3 RC1. Reason is probably this http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=34865

[40hz]

There's a distinct possibility the reason Oo doesn't recognize a protected or locked Excel element is because Microsoft has a patent on the method by which the cell is protected. So rather than infringe by recognizing a protected cell, Oo just ignores the read-only status.

BTW - didn't somebody (CA?) actually get issued a patent for a method to write-protect a spreadsheet cell back in 2001 or thereabouts? I seem to remember reading about that and the flap it caused.

[Bamse]

But is it not weird that cell is in full working order though? Can be fixed so easily? How can Open/Libreoffice remove what must be tiptop protection code? Not worth much I guess.

[40hz]

How can Open/Libreoffice remove what must be tiptop protection code? Not worth much I guess.

In this case, I suspect the "protection" consists of little more than a flag which tells Excel not to put the contents of the cell into the edit window. I don't think it's the same mechanism they use to protect an entire spreadsheet.

Not that MS Office's protection capabilities are all that strong. Or at least they weren't last time I had to help a client crack an Office document a disgruntled employee password-locked just before she quit.