I am developing an engineering software application using MS Excel
2002(Windows)as the development platform.  I have two questions
concerning the distribution of the finished product:

Q1: Is there a viable compiler for Excel to convert the final
spreadsheet into an executable file that can be run on a users PC
without Excel itself? (Note: I've already looked briefly at Baler
Visual, but it appears to have problems).

Q2: What can be done to enhance the security of the distributed
spreadsheet. By security, I mean: (a)protection for locked files that
will be purchased online and downloaded to the user's PC and
(b)protection for the macros from virus and hacker attacks.

Hi,
The answer is for both is No.
1.Using Visual basic you can create excel projects using office
automation. This will help you to keep your code compiled. But still
need excel object to run. Without excel it won't run.

2.If you create your application using Excel and VBA macros the macro
code can be protected using passwords. It will protect your code from
ordinary users. But many password cracking softwares are available in
the net.So a determined person with vba knowledge can break your code.

If you want to protect your code then the best way is create
application using VB  and office automation which is explained in the
previous paragraph.

Hope it helps,

RAC

Hi RAC,
Thanks for your comment.  I would appreciate a clarification.  When
you say

"...Using Visual basic you can create excel projects using office
automation. This will help you to keep your code compiled. But still
need excel object to run...."

Does this mean I can develop the application in Excel (.xls) and then
use Visual Basic to compile it into executable code (.exe)?  If so, I
am not sure I understand why the user would still need the Excel
program to run it.

Please excuse me for these basic questions as I am not a programmer
and I am not familiar with Visual Basic and its capabilities.

Hi,
From Visual Basic (say VB6.0) you can write code to open a excel
sheet, use excel's functions for complex calculations, draw a graph or
even call a vba macro etc.. using OLE is called office automation,
hope you got the idea. As all your code is in vb it can be compiled.

To know more about automation see this link
http://www.microsoft.com/OfficeDev/Resources/Auto97.htm

hope it helps,
RAC