It would be great to have a feature when someone first opens a sheet that it pops up telling them important information. Such as "Do not use this sheet, it is for records only"
Locking might help in the interim.
http://help.smartsheet.com/customer/portal/articles/522077-locking-unlocking-columns-and-rows
Locking prevents editors.
Locking does not prevent owner/admin to change data.
Good idea, but they I would have to lock 10+ colums and my guys would just add a comment to the row and continue.
What I need is for them to have a notification if they open the sheet to discontinue using that sheet, or general information. Our ERP system does something similar everytime someone trys to open.
Other thought is to change permissions of the users who have access to sheet to viewer insread of
being editor/admin. So it will lock up most of the users having access as viewer.
Note that this solution will not need locking rows and columns.
Viewer: can view and export the sheet, but can't make any changes to the data
http://help.smartsheet.com/customer/portal/articles/520104-sharing-sheets
You could also add a message to the first row telling them not to use it. Make it large font with a background color to stand out
