Turning a spreadsheet into a standalone program

B

Badair

My company has a fairly complex Excel spreadsheet used for dail
accounting at several of our revenue-producing properties. We have bee
approached several times about selling the spreadsheet, but we ar
concerned that the people who buy it would then be able to copy it an
send it to as many people as they like.

How complex is it to make an Excel spreadsheet perform as a standalon
program? In the past I have used software keys to prevent unauthorize
duplication ... is this something I should consider in this case?

Thanks in advance for advice on the best way to proceed
 
H

Harlan Grove

Badair > said:
My company has a fairly complex Excel spreadsheet used for daily
accounting at several of our revenue-producing properties. We have been
approached several times about selling the spreadsheet, but we are
concerned that the people who buy it would then be able to copy it and
send it to as many people as they like.

How complex is it to make an Excel spreadsheet perform as a standalone
program? In the past I have used software keys to prevent unauthorized
duplication ... is this something I should consider in this case?

Thanks in advance for advice on the best way to proceed.
Click to expand...

Software keys? If it were possible to prevent determined users from
bypassing VBA code that would be used to check such keys, then maybe you
could use them with Excel workbooks. However, Excel workbooks provide only
very lightweight security/protection. There are lots of tools available
today that will remove almost any type of internal password protection. File
Open password protection is fairly good, but if a customer has that
password, nothing would prevent them from passing along the password with
the .XLS file.

There's no way to secure your IP if it's contained in .XLS (or .XLA) files.
If you want to protect it, you need to distribure compiled executables
and/or libraries.
 
Top