Protect all excel worksheets

To prevent other users from accidentally or deliberately changing, moving, or deleting data in a worksheet, you can lock the cells on your Excel worksheet and then protect the sheet with a password. Say you own the team status report worksheet, where you want team members to add data in specific cells only and not be able to modify anything else. With worksheet protection, you can make only certain parts of the sheet editable and users will not be able to modify data in any other region in the sheet.

Important: Worksheet level protection is not intended as a security feature. It simply prevents users from modifying locked cells within the worksheet. Protecting a worksheet is not the same as protecting an Excel file or a workbook with a password. See below for more information:

To lock your file so that other users can’t open it, see Protect an Excel file.
To prevent users from adding, modifying, moving, copying, or hiding/unhiding sheets within a workbook, see Protect a workbook.
To know the difference between protecting your Excel file, workbook, or a worksheet see Protection and security in Excel.

The following sections describe how to protect and unprotect a worksheet in Excel for Windows.

Here’s what you can lock in an unprotected sheet:

Formulas: If you don’t want other users to see your formulas, you can hide them from being seen in cells or the Formula bar. For more information, see Display or hide formulas.
Ranges: You can enable users to work in specific ranges within a protected sheet. For more information, see Lock or unlock specific areas of a protected worksheet.

Note: ActiveX controls, form controls, shapes, charts, SmartArt, Sparklines, Slicers, Timelines, to name a few, are already locked when you add them to a spreadsheet. But the lock will work only when you enable sheet protection. See the subsequent section for more information on how to enable sheet protection.

Worksheet protection is a two-step process: the first step is to unlock cells that others can edit, and then you can protect the worksheet with or without a password.

Step 1: Unlock any cells that needs to be editable

In your Excel file, select the worksheet tab that you want to protect.
Select the cells that others can edit.

Tip: You can select multiple, non-contiguous cells by pressing Ctrl+Left-Click.
Right-click anywhere in the sheet and select Format Cells (or use Ctrl+1, or Command+1 on the Mac), and then go to the Protection tab and clear Locked.

Step 2: Protect the worksheet

Next, select the actions that users should be allowed to take on the sheet, such as insert or delete columns or rows, edit objects, sort, or use AutoFilter, to name a few. Additionally, you can also specify a password to lock your worksheet. A password prevents other people from removing the worksheet protection—it needs to be entered to unprotect the sheet.

Given below are the steps to protect your sheet.

On the Review tab, click Protect Sheet.

In the Allow all users of this worksheet to list, select the elements you want people to be able to change.

Option	Allows users to
Select locked cells	Move the pointer to cells for which the Locked box is checked on the Protection tab of the Format Cells dialog box. By default, users are allowed to select locked cells.
Select unlocked cells	Move the pointer to cells for which the Locked box is unchecked on the Protection tab of the Format Cells dialog box. By default, users can select unlocked cells, and they can press the TAB key to move between the unlocked cells on a protected worksheet.
Format cells	Change any of the options in the Format Cells or Conditional Formatting dialog boxes. If you applied conditional formatting before you protected the worksheet, the formatting continues to change when a user enters a value that satisfies a different condition.
Format columns	Use any of the column formatting commands, including changing column width or hiding columns (Home tab, Cells group, Format button).
Format rows	Use any of the row formatting commands, including changing row height or hiding rows (Home tab, Cells group, Format button).
Insert columns	Insert columns.
Insert rows	Insert rows.
Insert hyperlinks	Insert new hyperlinks, even in unlocked cells.
Delete columns	Delete columns. Note: If Delete columns is protected and Insert columns is not protected, a user can insert columns but cannot delete them.
Delete rows	Delete rows. Note: If Delete rows is protected and Insert rows is not protected, a user can insert rows but cannot delete them.
Sort	Use any commands to sort data (Data tab, Sort & Filter group). Note: Users can’t sort ranges that contain locked cells on a protected worksheet, regardless of this setting.
Use AutoFilter	Use the drop-down arrows to change the filter on ranges when AutoFilters are applied. Note: Users cannot apply or remove AutoFilter on a protected worksheet, regardless of this setting.
Use PivotTable reports	Format, change the layout, refresh, or otherwise modify PivotTable reports, or create new reports.
Edit objects	Doing any of the following: Make changes to graphic objects including maps, embedded charts, shapes, text boxes, and controls that you did not unlock before you protected the worksheet. For example, if a worksheet has a button that runs a macro, you can click the button to run the macro, but you cannot delete the button. Make any changes, such as formatting, to an embedded chart. The chart continues to be updated when you change its source data. Add or edit notes.
Edit scenarios	View scenarios that you have hidden, making changes to scenarios that you have prevented changes to, and deleting these scenarios. Users can change the values in the changing cells, if the cells are not protected, and add new scenarios.

Optionally, enter a password in the Password to unprotect sheet box and click OK. Reenter the password in the Confirm Password dialog box and click OK.
Important:
- Use strong passwords that combine uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Weak passwords don’t mix these elements. Passwords should be 8 or more characters in length. A passphrase that uses 14 or more characters is better.
- It is critical that you remember your password. If you forget your password, Microsoft cannot retrieve it.

The Protect Sheet option on the ribbon changes to Unprotect Sheet when a sheet is protected. To view this option, click the Review tab on the ribbon, and in Changes, see Unprotect Sheet.

To unprotect a sheet, follow these steps:

Go to the worksheet you want to unprotect.
Go to File > Info > Protect > Unprotect Sheet, or from the Review tab > Changes > Unprotect Sheet.
If the sheet is protected with a password, then enter the password in the Unprotect Sheet dialog box and click OK.

The following sections describe how to protect and unprotect a worksheet in Excel for the Web.

Select Review > Manage Protection.
To turn on protection, in the Manage Protection task pane, select Protect sheet.

Note Although you can selectively protect parts of the sheet by setting various options in the Options section, these settings only apply when the Protect sheet setting is on.
By default, the entire sheet is locked and protected. To unlock specific ranges, select Unlocked ranges, and then enter a range name and cell range. You can add more than one range.
Optionally, to require a password to edit a range, select Range password, enter and confirm the password, and then select Save. Make sure sheet protection is turned on.
Optionally, to control the ability to edit protections for the entire sheet with a password, select Sheet protection password, enter and confirm the password, and then select Save.

Important
- Use strong passwords that combine uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Weak passwords don’t mix these elements. Passwords should be 8 or more characters in length. Make sure the CAPS LOCK key is off and use correct capitalization. Passwords are case-sensitive.
- It is critical that you remember your password. If you forget your password, Microsoft cannot retrieve it.

Optionally, if you want to selectively enable and disable specific sheet elements, select the Options section, and then select one or more options.

Option	Allows users to
Select locked cells	Move the pointer to cells for which the Locked box is checked on the Protection tab of the Format Cells dialog box. By default, users are allowed to select locked cells.
Select unlocked cells	Move the pointer to cells for which the Locked box is unchecked on the Protection tab of the Format Cells dialog box. By default, users can select unlocked cells, and they can press the TAB key to move between the unlocked cells on a protected worksheet.
Format cells	Change any of the options in the Font and Alignment groups of the Home tab. Note If cell formatting and hidden properties were previously protected by using the Format Cells or Conditional Formatting dialog boxes, they remain protected, but you can only modify options in these dialog boxes by using Excel for Windows. If you applied conditional formatting before you protected the worksheet, the formatting continues to change when a user enters a value that satisfies a different condition.
Format columns	Use any of the column formatting commands, including changing column width or hiding columns (Home tab, Cells group, Format button).
Format rows	Use any of the row formatting commands, including changing row height or hiding rows (Home tab, Cells group, Format button).
Insert columns	Insert columns.
Insert rows	Insert rows.
Insert hyperlinks	Insert new hyperlinks, even in unlocked cells.
Delete columns	Delete columns. Note: If Delete columns is protected and Insert columns is not protected, a user can insert columns but cannot delete them.
Delete rows	Delete rows. Note: If Delete rows is protected and Insert rows is not protected, a user can insert rows but cannot delete them.
Sort	Use any commands to sort data (Data tab, Sort & Filter group). Note: Users can’t sort ranges that contain locked cells on a protected worksheet, regardless of this setting.
Use AutoFilter	Use the drop-down arrows to change the filter on ranges when AutoFilters are applied. Note: Users cannot apply or remove AutoFilter on a protected worksheet, regardless of this setting.
Use PivotTable reports	Format, change the layout, refresh, or otherwise modify PivotTable reports, or create new reports.
Edit objects	Doing any of the following: Make changes to graphic objects including maps, embedded charts, shapes, text boxes, and controls that you did not unlock before you protected the worksheet. For example, if a worksheet has a button that runs a macro, you can click the button to run the macro, but you cannot delete the button. Make any changes, such as formatting, to an embedded chart. The chart continues to be updated when you change its source data. Add or edit notes.
Edit scenarios	View scenarios that you have hidden, making changes to scenarios that you have prevented changes to, and deleting these scenarios. Users can change the values in the changing cells, if the cells are not protected, and add new scenarios.

Notes

If you don’t want other users to see your formulas, you can hide them from being seen in cells or the Formula bar. For more information, see Display or hide formulas.
ActiveX controls, form controls, shapes, charts, SmartArt, Sparklines, Slicers, Timelines, and so on, are already locked when you add them to a spreadsheet. But the lock works only when you enable sheet protection. For more information, see Protect controls and linked cells on a worksheet.

There are two ways to unprotect a sheet, disable it or pause it.

Disable protection

Select Review > Manage Protection.
To turn off protection, In the Manage Protection task pane, turn off Protect sheet.

Pause protection

Pausing protection turns off protection for the current editing session while maintaining the protection for other users in the workbook. For example, you can pause protection to edit a locked range but maintain protection for other users.

To pause sheet protection, select Review > Pause Protection.

Note If the sheet has a protection password, you must enter that password to pause protection.
To resume sheet protection, select Review > Resume Protection.

At the bottom of the sheet, the sheet tab displays a locked icon if the sheet is protected (Sheet1), and an unlocked icon if it is paused (Sheet2).

Need more help?

You can always ask an expert in the Excel Tech Community or get support in the Answers community.

Wearing Protection

Sometimes, Excel just isn’t as versatile as you’d like. Some of us find protection particularly wearing. In this article, we present an easier way to protect / unprotect multiple worksheets. By Liam Bastick, Director with SumProduct Pty Ltd.

Query

Is there a way to protect / unprotect multiple worksheets in Excel at the same time?

Advice

I fear this article might give rise to a hornet’s nest of similar queries. Excel is a highly flexible piece of software, but sometimes it’s not all the modeller might hope for. Some readers will already have noted that some operations cannot be applied across multiple worksheets, with the application of protection just one item in that list.

However, before I address the above query, let me first summarise how protection works in Excel.

The Three Levels of Protection in Excel

If you open any workbook and select any cell in a randomly selected worksheet, you will note that the cell is “locked” by default (simply go to the cell, then depress CTRL + 1 and select the ‘Protection’ tab), viz.

Cells are locked by default

As the narrative in the dialog box notes, locking cells has no effect until the worksheet is protected. This is simple to prove: all cells are locked by default yet anyone can still edit any cell at will.

In order to protect the contents, you have to protect the worksheet (ALT + T + P + P in all versions of Excel, otherwise ‘Home’ tab of the Ribbon, then select ‘Format’ in the ‘Cells’ group and then select ‘Protect Sheet…’ in Excel 2007 onwards). For later versions of Excel, this will promote the following dialog box:

viz.

Protect Sheet Dialog Box

Personally, I am not keen on using passwords (other than ‘****’ so that I can see what I am typing!). This is because Excel is not secure software and more often than not, it’s the modeller who goes looking for a hack when they realise they have forgotten the password.

Nonetheless, this remains in the realm of the end user and may be entered if desired. It is only when the sheet has been protected that locked cells are protected. Other actions may or may not be allowed by checking the various check boxes displayed above.

But you can still delete this worksheet – even if it has been password protected. I don’t know about you, but that’s not my definition of “protected”! In order to protect sheets (e.g. prevent sheets being deleted, hidden or moved), you actually need to protect the workbook (ALT + T + P + W in all versions of Excel):

Protect Workbook Dialog Box

These are the three stages of protection in Excel: cell, worksheet and workbook.

The Basic Problem

The actual issue is that you cannot protect more than one sheet at a time in Excel. If you have many sheets in Excel, this can become very time consuming if you wish to protect all sheets. The solution is to resort to macros.
I have explained how to add macros before and to ensure that the workbook is saved as a macro-enabled workbook (please see either the article on locating links or the article on automating a Table of Contents for more details).

To protect all sheets, I suggest the following code in the Visual Basic Editor (ALT + F11):

Protect All Sheets Macro

Sub ProtectAll()

Dim wSheet As Worksheet

Dim Pwd As String

Pwd = InputBox(«Enter your password to protect all worksheets», «Password Input»)

For Each wSheet In Worksheets

wSheet.Protect Password:=Pwd, DrawingObjects:=True, Contents:=True, Scenarios:=True, _

AllowFormattingColumns:=True, AllowFormattingRows:=True

Next wSheet

End Sub

I have added additional functionality (e.g. formatting of columns and rows) so that you can see how you can modify what may be adjusted once all the worksheets have been protected. The best way to learn VBA is to play with it – and try not to tear your hair out!

To unprotect all sheets, I suggest the following:

Unprotect All Sheets Macro

Sub UnProtectAll()

Dim wSheet As Worksheet

Dim Pwd As String

Pwd = InputBox(«Enter your password to unprotect all worksheets», «Password Input»)

On Error Resume Next

For Each wSheet In Worksheets

wSheet.Unprotect Password:=Pwd

Next wSheet

If Err <> 0 Then

MsgBox «You have entered an incorrect password. All worksheets could not » & _

«be unprotected.», vbCritical, «Incorrect Password»

End If

On Error GoTo 0

End Sub

Readers may note for this example I have included an error trap to capture what happens if you put the wrong password in. I always recommend allowing for user error!

These macros can then be run from the ‘Developer’ tab. This tab is not visible by default but can be displayed but can be displayed (please consult the ‘Help’ guide as this varies between versions of Excel).

Word to the Wise

You can get quite clever regarding what functionalities are allowed in the protected worksheets. The attached Excel file provides a very simple example regarding how this might work in practice.

Regarding this month’s Excel file, I would like to emphasise this file may not work with all versions of Excel. Caveat emptor – it is provided in good faith and should work for most readers. However, I do not have time to enter into correspondence for those unlucky enough to find this file does not appear to work as intended. This is why I steer away from macros when I can!

Источник

Содержание

Protection and security in Excel
Which level of protection should I use?
Need more help?
Lock cells to protect them
Need more help?
Protect an Excel file
Need more help?
Protect a workbook
Protect the workbook structure
Protect the workbook structure
Need more help?

Protection and security in Excel

Excel gives you the ability to protect your work, whether it’s to prevent someone from opening a workbook without a password, granting Read-Only access to a workbook, or even just protecting a worksheet so you don’t inadvertently delete any formulas. In this topic we’ll discuss the various ways you can utilize the primary options to protect and distribute your Excel files.

If you forget or lose your password, Microsoft can’t retrieve it for you.

You should not assume that just because you protect a workbook or worksheet with a password that it is secure — you should always think twice before distributing Excel workbooks that could contain sensitive personal information like credit card numbers, Social Security Number, employee identification, to name a few.

Worksheet level protection is not intended as a security feature. It simply prevents users from modifying locked cells within the worksheet.

Following are the different options available for protecting your Excel data:

File-level: This refers to the ability to lock down your Excel file by specifying a password so that users can’t open or modify it. You have two choices here:

File encryption: When you choose this option, you specify a password and lock the Excel file. This prevents other users from opening the file. For more information, see Protect an Excel file.

Setting a password to open or modify a file: You specify a password to open or modify a file. Use this option when you need to give Read-only or edit access to different users. For more information, see Protect an Excel file.

Mark as Final: Use this option if you want to mark your Excel file as the final version and want to prevent any further changes by other users. For more information, see Add or remove protection in your document, workbook, or presentation.

Restrict Access: If your organization has permissions set up using Information Rights Management (IRM), you can apply any of the available IRM permissions to your document. For more information, see Add or remove protection in your document, workbook, or presentation.

Digital signature: You can add digital signatures to your Excel file. For more information, see Add or remove a digital signature in Office files.

Note: To add a digital signature, you need a valid certificate from a certificate authority (CA).

Workbook-level: You can lock the structure of your workbook by specifying a password. Locking the workbook structure prevents other users from adding, moving, deleting, hiding, and renaming worksheets. For more information on protecting workbooks, see Protect a workbook.

Worksheet-level: With sheet protection, you can control how a user can work within worksheets. You can specify what exactly a user can do within a sheet, thereby making sure that none of the important data in your worksheet are affected. For example, you might want a user to only add rows and columns, or only sort and use AutoFilter. Once sheet protection is enabled, you can protect other elements such as cells, ranges, formulas, and ActiveX or Form controls. For more information on protecting worksheets, see Protect a worksheet.

Which level of protection should I use?

To control the level of access users should have to an Excel file, use file-level protection. Let’s say you have a weekly status report of your team members in an Excel file. You don’t want anyone outside your team to be even able to open the file. There are two options available:

If you don’t want others to open your file: You can encrypt the Excel file, which is the most common technique used. This basically means you lock it with a password and nobody except you can open it.

If you want to enable Read-only or editing access to different users: Maybe, you want the managers in your team to be able to edit the weekly status report, but team members should only have Read-only access. You can protect the Excel file by specifying two passwords: one to open, and the other to modify. You can later share the appropriate passwords with the team depending on the access they should be given.

To control how users should work with worksheets inside a your workbook’s structure, use workbook-level protection. Let’s say your status report workbook has multiple worksheets, and each worksheet is named after a team member. You want to make sure each team member can add data to their own worksheet, but not be able to modify any of the worksheets in the workbook, whether it be adding a new worksheet, or moving worksheets around within the workbook.

To control how users should work within an individual worksheet, use worksheet-level protection. Let’s say each worksheet in your status report workbook contains data that is common to all worksheets, like header rows or a specific report layout, and you really don’t want anyone to change it. By protecting your worksheet, you can specify that users can only perform specific functions in a sheet. For example, you can give users the ability to enter data, but keep them from deleting rows or columns, or only insert hyperlinks or sort data.

You can use one or more levels of protection for your Excel data depending on your/your organization’s needs. You can choose to use all of the available options or a combination of options—it’s completely up to the level of security you want for your Excel data. For example, you may choose to encrypt a shared Excel file, as well as enable workbook and worksheet protection, while only using worksheet protection on a personal workbook just so you don’t accidentally delete any formulas.

Need more help?

You can always ask an expert in the Excel Tech Community or get support in the Answers community.

Источник

Lock cells to protect them

Suppose that your boss wants you to protect an entire workbook, but also wants to be able to change a few cells after you enable protection on the workbook. Before you enabled password protection, you had unlocked some cells in the workbook. Now that your boss is done with the workbook, you can lock these cells.

Follow these steps to lock cells in a worksheet:

Select the cells you want to lock.

On the Home tab, in the Alignment group, click the small arrow to open the Format Cells popup window.

On the Protection tab, select the Locked check box, and then click OK to close the popup.

Note: If you try these steps on a workbook or worksheet you haven’t protected, you’ll see the cells are already locked. This means that the cells are ready to be locked when you protect the workbook or worksheet.

On the Review tab in the ribbon, in the Changes group, select either Protect Sheet or Protect Workbook, and then reapply protection. See Protect a worksheet or Protect a workbook.

Tip: It’s a best practice to unlock any cells that you may want to change before you protect a worksheet or a workbook, but you can also unlock them after you apply protection. To remove protection, simply remove the password.

In addition to protecting workbooks and worksheets, you can also protect formulas.

Excel for the web can’t lock cells or specific areas of a worksheet.

If you want to lock cells or protect specific areas, click Open in Excel and lock cells to protect them or lock or unlock specific areas of a protected worksheet.

Need more help?

You can always ask an expert in the Excel Tech Community or get support in the Answers community.

Источник

Protect an Excel file

To prevent others from accessing data in your Excel files, protect your Excel file with a password.

Note: This topic covers file-level protection only, and not workbook or worksheet protection. To learn the difference between protecting your Excel file, workbook, or a worksheet, see Protection and security in Excel.

Select File > Info.

Select the Protect Workbook box and choose Encrypt with Password.

Enter a password in the Password box, and then select OK.

Confirm the password in the Reenter Password box, and then select OK.

Microsoft cannot retrieve forgotten passwords, so be sure that your password is especially memorable.

There are no restrictions on the passwords you use with regards to length, characters or numbers, but passwords are case-sensitive.

It’s not always secure to distribute password-protected files that contain sensitive information such as credit card numbers.

Be cautious when sharing files or passwords with other users. You still run the risk of passwords them falling into the hands of unintended users. Remember that locking a file with a password does not necessarily protect your file from malicious intent.

Need more help?

You can always ask an expert in the Excel Tech Community or get support in the Answers community.

Источник

Protect a workbook

To prevent other users from viewing hidden worksheets, adding, moving, deleting, or hiding worksheets, and renaming worksheets, you can protect the structure of your Excel workbook with a password.

Note: The screen shots in this article were taken in Excel 2016. If you have a different version your view might be slightly different, but unless otherwise noted, the functionality is the same.

Notes: Protecting the workbook is not the same as protecting an Excel file or a worksheet with a password. See below for more information:

To lock your file so that other users can’t open it, see Protect an Excel file.

To protect certain areas of the data in your worksheet from other users, you have to protect your worksheet. For more information, see Protect a worksheet.

To know the difference between protecting your Excel file, workbook, or a worksheet, see Protection and security in Excel.

Protect the workbook structure

To protect the structure of your workbook, follow these steps:

Click Review > Protect Workbook.

Note: The Windows option is available only in Excel 2007, Excel 2010, Excel for Mac 2011, and Excel 2016 for Mac. Select the Windows option if you want to prevent users from moving, resizing, or closing the workbook window, or hide/unhide windows.

Enter a password in the Password box.

Important: The password is optional. If you do not supply a password, any user can unprotect and change the workbook. If you do enter a password, make sure that you choose a password that is easy to remember. Write your passwords down and store them someplace safe. If you lose them, Excel cannot recover them for you.

Select OK, re-enter the password to confirm it, and then select OK again.

On the Review tab , see the Protect Workbook icon. If it’s highlighted, then the workbook is protected.

If you click on the bottom of a sheet inside your workbook, you will notice that the options to change the workbook structure, such as Insert, Delete, Rename, Move, Copy, Hide, and Unhide sheets are all unavailable.

The Protect Workbook option in the Info menu also indicates that the workbook’s structure is protected. To view this option, click File > Info > Protect Workbook.

Click Review > Protect Workbook. Enter the password and then click OK.

To prevent other users from viewing hidden worksheets, adding, moving, deleting, or hiding worksheets, and renaming worksheets, you can protect the structure of your Excel workbook with a password.

Note: The screen shots in this article were taken in Excel 2016. If you have a different version your view might be slightly different, but unless otherwise noted, the functionality is the same.

Notes: Protecting the workbook is not the same as protecting an Excel file or a worksheet with a password. See below for more information:

To lock your file so that other users can’t open it, see Protect an Excel file.

To protect certain areas of the data in your worksheet from other users, you have to protect your worksheet. For more information, see Protect a worksheet.

To know the difference between protecting your Excel file, workbook, or a worksheet, see Protection and security in Excel.

Protect the workbook structure

To protect the structure of your workbook, follow these steps:

Click Review > Protect Workbook.

Enter a password in the Password box.

The password is optional. If you do not supply a password, any user can unprotect and change the workbook. If you do enter a password, make sure that you choose a password that is easy to remember. Write your passwords down and store them someplace safe. If you lose them, Excel cannot recover them for you.

Passwords in Excel for Mac have a 15-character limit. You cannot open a workbook or document that has been password-protected in the Windows-based version of Excel or if the password is longer than fifteen characters. If you want to open the file in Excel for Mac, ask the Windows-based author to adjust the password length.

Retype the password and click OK.

On the Review tab , see the Protect Workbook icon. If it’s highlighted, then the workbook is protected.

Click Review > Protect Workbook. Enter the password and then click OK.

To unprotect a sheet, follow these steps:

Go to the worksheet you want to unprotect.

Go to File > Info > Protect > Unprotect Sheet, or from the Review tab > Changes > Unprotect Sheet.

If the sheet is protected with a password, then enter the password in the Unprotect Sheet dialog box, and click OK.

Excel for the web can open workbooks protected by a password but these files cannot be edited in web. Passwords can’t be added, changed, removed, or recovered from Excel for the web.

If you want to add a password to a workbook you are working on in Excel for the web, and you have Excel desktop application, use the Open in Excel button to open the workbook and password protect the workbook. But going forward, you’ll only be able to view the file on web — to make changes to the workbook, open it in your desktop version of Excel.

Need more help?

You can always ask an expert in the Excel Tech Community or get support in the Answers community.

Источник

Sometimes while sharing your spreadsheets you may not want the receiver to change the content of your worksheet or perhaps change only specific content and leave the rest untouched. To protect your worksheet from being edited by other people, Excel offers a protection feature. By following a couple of steps you can set protection to your work.

Protect an entire workbook from editing: A workbook can be protected by encrypting the workbook with a password, making the workbook read-only, or protecting the structure of a workbook.

Encrypt a workbook with a password:

To prevent other people from accessing your Excel files, protect them with a password. Head on to the file menu and do the following:

Step 1: Select File > Info.

Step 2: Select the Protect Workbook box and choose Encrypt with Password.

Step 3: Enter a password in the Password box, and then select OK.

Step 4: Confirm the password in the Re-enter Password box and then select OK.

TIP: Excel can’t retrieve your password once forgotten hence it’s advised to keep it easy to remember.

Making a workbook Read-only :

By making a workbook read only the user can read the content of the file and then enable editing if the user wishes to make changes, it gives the user a hint to be cautious about editing the file.

To make a workbook read-only open the Excel file you want to protect and then :

Step 1: Head on to File>info

Step 2: Select the Protect Workbook box and choose Always open Read-Only.

Step 3: Open the file and a warning will be displayed stating the author prefers the file to be opened in read-only mode. This makes the user aware of the author’s concerns.

Protecting the structure of a workbook:

To prevent other users from viewing hidden worksheets, adding, moving, deleting, or hiding worksheets, and renaming worksheets, you can protect the structure of your Excel workbook with a password.

Step 1: Click on Review tab>Protect workbook (under Changes ).

Step 2: Enter a password in the password box.

Step 3: Click ok and re-enter the password to confirm and hit OK again.

To remove the password from the workbook Head on to Review > Protect Workbook > type in the password and the workbook will be free from the password.

Protecting a worksheet from editing:

To protect the Workbook from editing follow the below steps:

Step 1: Open the worksheet you want to protect.

Step 2: Head on to Review tab > Protect sheet.

Step 3: This opens a project sheet dialog and prompts you to enter a password for the sheet. You can check the boxes you want the user to be able to edit after protection and uncheck the rest.

Step 4: Hit OK and confirm password (don’t lose this password).

Your sheet is now protected, try typing into the sheet and see what excel prompts!

As a developer if you want to make changes to your sheet you can hit the unprotect sheet under the review tab>enter the password> make the changes.

Protect specific cells from editing:

By default, every single cell in an Excel worksheet is locked. So if you head on to the Review tab and hit protected every single cell in the worksheet gets protected and no one can make any changes. But if you want the user to be able to edit certain cells and leave the rest unedited then follow these steps :

Step 1: Open the file you want to protect.

Step 2: Select the cells from the file that you want the users to be able to edit and make changes to(cells you want to unlock).

Step 3: Then under the font section click on the arrow pointing downwards icon on the bottom-right (called font settings)

Step 4: As the Format cells dialog box opens up, head on to Protection, turn off the locked property for the selected cells, and hit ok.

These cells are no longer locked and can be edited by the user. Deciding which cells should be locked and which shouldn’t is important while protecting the sheets.

Step 5: Head on to the Review tab > Protect sheet. This opens a protect sheet dialog and prompts you to enter a password for the sheet. You can check the boxes you want the user to be able to edit after protection and uncheck the rest.

Step 6: Hit OK and confirm password (don’t lose this password).

Step 7: Click ok and re-enter the password to confirm and hit OK again.

According to the situation at hand, you can protect your worksheet or workbook in one of the many ways.

Источник

See Also

Protect the workbook structure

Protect the workbook structure

Need more help?

See Also

Need more help?

Wearing Protection

Query

Advice

The Three Levels of Protection in Excel

The Basic Problem

Word to the Wise

Protection and security in Excel

Which level of protection should I use?

Need more help?

Lock cells to protect them

Need more help?

Protect an Excel file

Need more help?

Protect a workbook

Protect the workbook structure

Protect the workbook structure

Need more help?

Encrypt a workbook with a password:

Making a workbook Read-only :

Protecting the structure of a workbook:

Protecting a worksheet from editing:

Protect specific cells from editing: