Lock cells but allow sorting.

[G2C2C]

Is there a way in Excel 2003 to lock cells and rows so that data cannot be changed within them but that they can still be sorted A-Z etc?

[ChuckFickens]

Nope.

You can either make the sheet read only and unnprotect the sheet or write a macro that unprotects the sheet does the sort and then re-protects it.

[Flyhalf]

If you highlight the whole sheet, and custom sort, each row will remain unchanged, just move to a different place.
e.g. Columns headed
A Writer
B Book
C Category
custom sort of column A will bring up all books by same author, adding "level" as Excel puts it will sort each author's works as well
And so on.

[HowardKennitby]

If you search for this on internet you will see a few forums which suggest that this is only possible via VBA code. Some include suitable code for this.

[G2C2C]

Perhaps I'll leave well alone rather than mess my work up. Surprised though that it's not possible without writing a macro whatever that is.