Carl,
Check out my replies in this recent thread: thread68-426762
I think this may work for you, possibly with modifications. The idea was to create a custom TAB order; different than Excel's default. Using this "worksheet map" approach, you would place the cell address for the next cell to tab to into each of the skipped cells. My code was set up to invoke the custom tab procedure only when the data-entry worksheet was protected, but this can probably be changed. I can send you a copy of my demo workbook if interested.
Regards,
Mike