Protecting cell data from being referred in formulas

[varun.kaul]

I have data in the first three columns (Name, markup, and final quote).
I hide the second column and locked all the cells, such that no protected cells could be selected.

However, if someone viewing the sheet, opens a new workbook and manually types in "=[Book1.xlsx]Sheet1!B2" he can still see the markup.

Any method to protect my data from this method?

[jewelsharma]

Excel is not very good at data protection. If someone wants to, they would be easily able to unprotect the limited protection offered by excel.

You may try though - create another worksheet ( a copy of your sheet basically) and make it "very hidden". Then you can delete the 2nd column from the visible worksheet. Now, only you (& every user of this forum ) know that there is actually one more worksheet in the workbook. So long as others don't know it exists, thou may not look for it.