"The range you are trying to modify is locked" in Excel layout

[Former Member]

We have struck a problem with a number of BPS layouts in our BW 3.5 system that previously have been working correctly. The planning layouts appear to load correctly, but when the user attempts to enter information in some cells, a pop-up window reading "The range you are trying to modify is locked" appears. This only happens for certain cells, some cells (such as the first row of data, underneath the headings) accept data as normal, and normal functionality (saving, planning functions, etc) work as expected for these cells only. No error messages or unusual texts appear in the message tray.

My first thought was that it might be a locking issue, but this is happening in a development system with no other users, and where the lock table in SM12 is empty apart from the usual lock entries one would expect when a planning screen has been opened. There are no data slices or other restrictions in place, and when I switch the planning layout to an equivalent ALV component, there are no problems, which I think also rules out a security issue.

We have recently applied latest support stacks to our system, which I suspect are the root cause of this issue. It also appears to be similar to [this unanswered question|; from a couple of months ago (we have looked at the responses here and determined that they do not apply to our situation).

Any advice, tips, or pointers on how we can correct this issue would be greatly appreciated.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

1. Check if there is any active data slice present on planning area, if so, for what data it is locking. 2. Check if there is any macro written to lock a particular row in the excel if a condition satisfies, you can check the code in SAPAfterDataPut module in the VB editor of Planning layout. 3. Check if comparision columns check box is checked in the data column section in the second screen of layout builder mistakenly.

[Former Member]

Bindu, Pratyush,

Thankyou for the prompt reply. After a bit of digging, we determined that the error was caused by the manual steps of SAP Note 1099384 not being implemented correctly. After this, we implemented notes 1144348 and 1173895 which appear to have resolved the issue.

[former_member5472]

Hi,

It looks like a VB macro issue ; As you said when you move from excel to ALV, no such messages comes and there is no data slice ;

Please check if by mistake VB macro are enabled for these cells ;

Thanks

Pratyush