On Tue, 2006-12-12 at 20:40 +1100, Terry wrote: > Below is a request for help from a lady who risks being failed in a > professional exam because she used Calc to complete an Excel spreadsheet. > > It seems that certain safeguards implanted by Excel were lost in the > process. > > Is there any way for her to escape this predicament? She filed this > request with the Calc list and has also asked on the Calc forum. I have > asked on the users list whether there is some other avenue she might try. > > This seems to be a trap about which potential users need to be warned. > > > Mabel Li wrote: > > Hi, > > > > I'm studying for my Chartered Accountant (CA). I recently completed an > > Excel > > based assignment, which is computer marked by the Institute. I > > received my > > marks and basically they have given me zero because they believe I have > > tampered with the security protection of the Excel spreadsheet they > > sent me > > i.e. I cheated. I have done no such thing. My only crime is that I > > used Calc > > to complete the assignment. > > > > I am posting this here because I stand to fail this subject if I do > > not get > > my assignment remarked, and also I will waste another year of my life > > repeating this subject. > > > > The feedback I received from the Institute is, and I quote is as follows: > > (EP stands for Extension Project) ... > > > > "Your EP received a result of zero. The reason you received no marks > > is that > > we were specific in our FAQs for this EP and you have breached these > > requirements. For example, important fields such as program range > > names and > > secret IDs had been removed from your submitted Excel EP file, thus > > cannot > > be marked. Also candidates had been clearly advised not to copy any > > formulae > > from other worksheets or delete any formulae, field names or > > columns/rows in > > your workbooks as this would result in a zero result. I would again > > refer to > > you the FAQs for the EP." > > > >> From reading the other threads regarding security, it appears that > >> whatever > > security features that are embedded in Excel are removed once you open > > the > > file with Calc. Is this correct? If that is the case, how can I prove > > this? > > > > Thank you for assistance, > > Mabel Li > > > >
I will agree with Paul's comments but I would also tell Mabel to respond with a copy of OOo and ask them to try the security features of their Excel spreadsheet in OOo themselves and see the results. I would also be inclined to look at the appeals process and learn as much as possible about the requirements. If there was no mandate to use MS Office for the course then they shouldn't be able to enforce the usage of a MS Office product. The software should also have been part of the course if it was mandatory. Depending on the type of "safeguards", they may be known weaknesses in Excel that can be referenced to in the appeal. Such as the poor password and protection offered by Excel. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
