Can You Limit Input to One Time?

Hi everyone! I have a question, and I'm really hoping there's a way to do this...I have a sheet that I'd like to make only allow an entry one time. What I'd like to do is either put a button in, or a dropdown, or a check box, or something, that would then copy a series of cells and not allow the cells (that it has copied) to be modified again, preferably in so doing to make it so that it would copy the same cells again but to a new range, leaving the old one in place.

If possible, I'd really like to do this without macros as well, but if it's not possible without but is possible with, that would be preferable to not getting it to do it at all. I'm using Excel 2013 on Windows 8.1. Thanks in advance!

It will, yeah. The cells that would be copied are derived from choices users make in multiple dropdowns in other cells. What I'm trying to do is capture the values of those cells when the button is pressed/box is checked/etc. to preserve the values at that moment, but allow the cells that are copied from to be changed further without overwriting the copy made by the button/check box/etc.

Whole range - one click to move A1:A10 to C1:C10.

I would like to preserve subsequent copies as well, yes. And...ok, I can send you the whole thing if you want, but it's a pretty complicated sheet - if you want a simple example, it'd be basically:

	A	B	C	D
1	Button	9
2		5
3		7
4		12
5		30
6		4
7		87
8		2
9		0

So this is what it would be like before button press, with column B being the cells that are grabbed. After button press:

	A	B	C	D
1	Button	9	9
2		5	5
3		7	7
4		12	12
5		30	30
6		4	4
7		87	87
8		2	2
9		0	0

Cell values for B have been copied to C. Now, column B changes based on the user inputs from other things that feed column B:

	A	B	C	D
1	Button	12	9
2		3	5
3		75	7
4		8	12
5		2	30
6		19	4
7		65	87
8		3	2
9		9	0

Press the button again, and you get:

	A	B	C	D
1	Button	12	9	12
2		3	5	3
3		75	7	75
4		8	12	8
5		2	30	2
6		19	4	19
7		65	87	65
8		3	2	2
9		9	0	9

Column B has once more been copied, this time to column D, but column C remains at its previous values that were fetched the first time the button was pressed. This would continue on each time you pressed the button, with the third click filling column E and leaving columns C and D as they had been initially copied, the fourth filling column F and leaving columns C,D, and E as they wre initially filled, etc. And it doesn't have to be a button, that just seems like the most logical - if it could be a dropdown, or a check box, or anything like that it'd be fine. Preferably not a macro (because macros break some of my users' systems for some reason) but if there's no other way, then macro it is.

Mmkay, thanks! Just so I know, if I wanted the copying to stat at, say, column M but the original be in B still, would I just replace CurrentRegion?

Hmm...ok, so I tried that, but it's copying the forumlae that determine the results into the new cells, rather than their results. Is there a way to make it grab just the actual results instead (like the INDIRECT() function does)?

It's also changing the numbers when they change on the original input instead of copying their values at the time the button is pressed and then locking them in.

Perfect! ^_^ Thank you so much!

You're gonna want to kill me... <_< Ok, so...this is working great, and I can definitely make what I want to do happen with it, but I think I found a better way to do it from an ease-of-use standpoint.

So...what I would want the whole thing to do, if I could figure out how (and I totally understand if you don't want to mess with this) is this, in order...


1) Copy the present value of cells X2:X16 to cells CL2:CL16
2) Search cells J32:J38 for "String 1" and, if found, replace it with "String 2" and go to step 5, otherwise go to step 3
3) Search cells J32:J38 for "String 2" and, if found, replace it with "String 3" and go to step 5, otherwise go to step 4
4) Search cells B24:B38 for "String 4" and, if found, increase the number in corresponding cell in column D by 1 to a maximum of 5, and add the overflow to cell CK1 (making CK1=1 if it would otherwise make the D cell a 6, =2 if CK1 already =1, etc.)
5) If step 4 sets the corresponding D cell to 2, add "String 2" to the topmost empty cell in range J32:J38
6) Copy the new present value of cells X2:X16 to cells CM2:CM16


If I can make it do that, I can make it so the entire operation will be handled in one click for the end user...but I have no idea how to do it...

Sure, I'd be happy to, it's just got a lot of stuff in there that's not really relevant to it too. But if you want to see it, here it is! ^_^

It's...sorta...so the previous request is a way to do what I was looking for, but this new thing would be an easier (for the end-user) thing to do the thing I was wanting to use the original formula for, which (as far as I can tell) would need two separate buttons to do.

Is it not possible to do that? <_<