Sheet Protected - Message on unprotected cells?

Hi,

i am doing a project for work where i was given a pre existing sheet that was created by someone who no longer works here. i have had to do alot of modification to it, however some of the original owners codes still exist.

my problem is that i have certain areas that need to be left editable and some locked. i had no problem doing this in cell formating, but it has now left me with the problem that when i protect the sheet i get a message come up everytime someone trys to edit the unprotected cells. it still allows them to edit to selected cell but comes up with a message everytime after they click away or hit enter. if they try to edit the protected cells they get the standard excel protected cell message and cannot edit it.

any help would be appreciated! i cant see any macros causing it as i have deleted them all and as far as im aware there is no VBA codes that i can see (limited knowledge however)

Thanks!