Open field in protected, shared Excel workbook - vba

Question

I have a shared, protected workbook that has a button to bring up a search form. There are two fields on this form, txtYear and cbxRegion, that I need enabled. Whenever I try to open the fields, it works until I exit Excel.
I have tried unprotecting the workbook, unsharing it, and commenting out any reference in the VBA to reprotecting the form. And still, even the edited VBA reverts back to the original.
This is the section of code referring to the form I need enabled. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. I'm using Excel 2010.
Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
Dim strDb As String
Dim rs As ADODB.Recordset
Dim cn As ADODB.Connection
Dim row As Integer
Dim AccessVersionID As String
cbxRegion.Value = Worksheets("Parameters").Cells(5, 14)
Me.txtYear = Worksheets("Parameters").Cells(4, 7)
Me.chkBoth = Worksheets("Parameters").Cells(9, 2)
Me.chkConsultant = Worksheets("Parameters").Cells(7, 2)
Me.chkInHouse = Worksheets("Parameters").Cells(8, 2)
'Set region values
'Open connection
'Select Case SysCmd(acSysCmdAccessVer)
'Case 11: AccessVersionID = "2003"
'End Select
'If AccessVersionID = "2003" Then
' strDb = Worksheets("Parameters").Cells(17, 2).Value 'This will reference the path
'Else
strDb = Worksheets("Parameters").Cells(18, 2).Value
'End If
Set cn = New ADODB.Connection
cn.Open "Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0; Data Source=" & strDb & ";"
Set rs = New ADODB.Recordset
'Get recordset
With rs
Set .ActiveConnection = cn
.Open "Select * From LookupRegion"
.Requery
End With
'Add regions
row = 0
With rs
.MoveFirst
Do Until .EOF
cbxRegion.AddItem ![region]
cbxRegion.list(row, 1) = ![RegionName]
row = row + 1
.MoveNext
Loop
End With
'Close the recordset
rs.Close
Set rs = Nothing
cn.Close
Set cn = Nothing
End Sub

Answer 1

I managed to get it to work. In order, I:
Unshared the workbook
Unprotected the workbook
Saved, closed, and reopened the workbook to make sure the settings stayed
Enabled the fields
Saved, closed, and reopened the workbook to make sure the settings stayed
Protected the workbook
Shared the workbook (as required by the specifications I was given, I would rather not share it but it really isn't my call here)
Saved, closed, and reopened the workbook to make sure the settings stayed
And now it works exactly as I need it to.

Answer 2

As far as I am concerned, the best advice anyone can give you for a shared workbook is: don't use them.
Shared Workbooks are impossible to troubleshoot. Their aberrant behaviour cannot be fixed. They don't follow any logic. Once a shared workbook starts acting up and behaving strangely, you have reached the inevitable end stage. Nothing can be done to fix it. The behaviour is not necessarily reproducible.
If you need simultaneous multi-user write access to a dataset, then Excel is the wrong tool. Use a database.
Don't use shared workbooks.