I am using Excel 2007 (although the file I am asking about was created in an earlier version and has the .xls extension - and I want to leave it in the older format).

I have an Excel file where the user can click a button that starts a VBA macro to play a business game. There is another button to start the game over with a different set of demand characteristics. I’d like to be able to make the file expire after about 2 months so users can no longer access the game (don't know if this is VBA). If this is not possible, I’m wondering if there is a way to add an IF statement to the VBA macros that will “kill” the file after a certain date – I’m thinking the macro may be able to erase the entire spreadsheet? (and maybe immediately save it), so it is blank? – or maybe there is a better way?

I’ve noted some code as to how to get exact dates, but I need a "greater than a date" and I can’t quite put it all together. Can anyone help?

Thanks very much

Well, dates respond to the regular comparison operators. The two operands must both be dates, but with that caveat, you should be able to use >, <, etc.

Just looking at this, without any research, I would put a date into the registry for this file, then retrieve it, and make the comparison upon opening the file. As the first statement of the routine that initializes this "game," I would test the retrieved date. If the date is out of range, exit the sub. The phenomenon will be that nothing at all happened when trying to start the game.

(Bear in mind, clever individuals will find what's happening in the code, and will circumvent it.)