The Tip of the Night for May 20, 2020, discussed how to use Visual Basic code to remove the protection for a worksheet in Excel. This night's tip demonstrates alternate vba code to edit protection placed on an Excel workbook.
This code successfully removed the protection for a worksheet protected with a fairly strong password: GiraffeY2K2020 - in just a few seconds.
1. Open a blank Excel workbook, and as always press ALT + F11 to open Visual Basic. Insert the below code in a new module in the project list on the left.
2. Press play to run the macro. You will be prompted to select the Excel file to process.
3. The macro will create a copy of the file in its original directory and append the date and current time to the end of the file.
When the processing is done, any restrictions on the file should be removed. As the below screen grab shows, the macro works quite rapidly.
See the version of the code posted here, by Excel Off the Grid.
Sub RemoveProtection()
Dim dialogBox As FileDialog
Dim sourceFullName As String
Dim sourceFilePath As String
Dim sourceFileName As String
Dim sourceFileType As String
Dim newFileName As Variant
Dim tempFileName As String
Dim zipFilePath As Variant
Dim oApp As Object
Dim FSO As Object
Dim xmlSheetFile As String
Dim xmlFile As Integer
Dim xmlFileContent As String
Dim xmlStartProtectionCode As Double
Dim xmlEndProtectionCode As Double
Dim xmlProtectionString As String
'Open dialog box to select a file
Set dialogBox = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFilePicker)
dialogBox.AllowMultiSelect = False
dialogBox.Title = "Select file to remove protection from"
If dialogBox.Show = -1 Then
sourceFullName = dialogBox.SelectedItems(1)
Else
Exit Sub
End If
'Get folder path, file type and file name from the sourceFullName
sourceFilePath = Left(sourceFullName, InStrRev(sourceFullName, "\"))
sourceFileType = Mid(sourceFullName, InStrRev(sourceFullName, ".") + 1)
sourceFileName = Mid(sourceFullName, Len(sourceFilePath) + 1)
sourceFileName = Left(sourceFileName, InStrRev(sourceFileName, ".") - 1)
'Use the date and time to create a unique file name
tempFileName = "Temp" & Format(Now, " dd-mmm-yy h-mm-ss")
'Copy and rename original file to a zip file with a unique name
newFileName = sourceFilePath & tempFileName & ".zip"
On Error Resume Next
FileCopy sourceFullName, newFileName
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
MsgBox "Unable to copy " & sourceFullName & vbNewLine _
& "Check the file is closed and try again"
Exit Sub
End If
On Error GoTo 0
'Create folder to unzip to
zipFilePath = sourceFilePath & tempFileName & "\"
MkDir zipFilePath
'Extract the files into the newly created folder
Set oApp = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
oApp.Namespace(zipFilePath).CopyHere oApp.Namespace(newFileName).items
'loop through each file in the \xl\worksheets folder of the unzipped file
xmlSheetFile = Dir(zipFilePath & "\xl\worksheets\*.xml*")
Do While xmlSheetFile <> ""
'Read text of the file to a variable
xmlFile = FreeFile
Open zipFilePath & "xl\worksheets\" & xmlSheetFile For Input As xmlFile
xmlFileContent = Input(LOF(xmlFile), xmlFile)
Close xmlFile
'Manipulate the text in the file
xmlStartProtectionCode = 0
xmlStartProtectionCode = InStr(1, xmlFileContent, "<sheetProtection")
If xmlStartProtectionCode > 0 Then
xmlEndProtectionCode = InStr(xmlStartProtectionCode, _
xmlFileContent, "/>") + 2 '"/>" is 2 characters long
xmlProtectionString = Mid(xmlFileContent, xmlStartProtectionCode, _
xmlEndProtectionCode - xmlStartProtectionCode)
xmlFileContent = Replace(xmlFileContent, xmlProtectionString, "")
End If
'Output the text of the variable to the file
xmlFile = FreeFile
Open zipFilePath & "xl\worksheets\" & xmlSheetFile For Output As xmlFile
Print #xmlFile, xmlFileContent
Close xmlFile
'Loop to next xmlFile in directory
xmlSheetFile = Dir
Loop
'Read text of the xl\workbook.xml file to a variable
xmlFile = FreeFile
Open zipFilePath & "xl\workbook.xml" For Input As xmlFile
xmlFileContent = Input(LOF(xmlFile), xmlFile)
Close xmlFile
'Manipulate the text in the file to remove the workbook protection
xmlStartProtectionCode = 0
xmlStartProtectionCode = InStr(1, xmlFileContent, "<workbookProtection")
If xmlStartProtectionCode > 0 Then
xmlEndProtectionCode = InStr(xmlStartProtectionCode, _
xmlFileContent, "/>") + 2 ''"/>" is 2 characters long
xmlProtectionString = Mid(xmlFileContent, xmlStartProtectionCode, _
xmlEndProtectionCode - xmlStartProtectionCode)
xmlFileContent = Replace(xmlFileContent, xmlProtectionString, "")
End If
'Manipulate the text in the file to remove the modify password
xmlStartProtectionCode = 0
xmlStartProtectionCode = InStr(1, xmlFileContent, "<fileSharing")
If xmlStartProtectionCode > 0 Then
xmlEndProtectionCode = InStr(xmlStartProtectionCode, xmlFileContent, _
"/>") + 2 ''"/>" is 2 characters long
xmlProtectionString = Mid(xmlFileContent, xmlStartProtectionCode, _
xmlEndProtectionCode - xmlStartProtectionCode)
xmlFileContent = Replace(xmlFileContent, xmlProtectionString, "")
End If
'Output the text of the variable to the file
xmlFile = FreeFile
Open zipFilePath & "xl\workbook.xml" & xmlSheetFile For Output As xmlFile
Print #xmlFile, xmlFileContent
Close xmlFile
'Create empty Zip File
Open sourceFilePath & tempFileName & ".zip" For Output As #1
Print #1, Chr$(80) & Chr$(75) & Chr$(5) & Chr$(6) & String(18, 0)
Close #1
'Move files into the zip file
oApp.Namespace(sourceFilePath & tempFileName & ".zip").CopyHere _
oApp.Namespace(zipFilePath).items
'Keep script waiting until Compressing is done
On Error Resume Next
Do Until oApp.Namespace(sourceFilePath & tempFileName & ".zip").items.Count = _
oApp.Namespace(zipFilePath).items.Count
Application.Wait (Now + TimeValue("0:00:01"))
Loop
On Error GoTo 0
'Delete the files & folders created during the sub
Set FSO = CreateObject("scripting.filesystemobject")
FSO.deletefolder sourceFilePath & tempFileName
'Rename the final file back to an xlsx file
Name sourceFilePath & tempFileName & ".zip" As sourceFilePath & sourceFileName _
& "_" & Format(Now, "dd-mmm-yy h-mm-ss") & "." & sourceFileType
'Show message box
MsgBox "The workbook and worksheet protection passwords have been removed.", _
vbInformation + vbOKOnly, Title:="Password protection"
End Sub