The process of locking cells in a workbook so that users cannot make any changes is:

Protecting Excel Sheet

Protect worksheet is a feature in Excel when we do not want any other user to make changes to our worksheet. It is available in the “Review” tab of Excel. It has various features where we can allow users to perform some tasks but not make changes, such as they can select cells to use an AutoFilter but cannot make any changes to the structure. Also, it is recommended to protect a worksheet with a password.

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• Protecting Excel Sheet
• #1 How to Protect a Sheet in Excel?
• #2 How to Protect Cells in an Excel Worksheet?
• #3 How to Hide the Formula Associated with a Cell?
• Things to Remember
• Recommended Articles
• What is the two step process to lock cells for users?
• What is the purpose of locking cells in Excel?

An Excel worksheet that is protected using a password and/or has the cells in the worksheet locked to prevent any changes is known as a “Protect Sheet.”

Purpose of a Protecting sheet with a password

To prevent the unknown users from accidentally or purposely changing, editing, moving, or deleting data in a worksheet, you can lock the cells in the Excel worksheet and then protect an Excel sheet with a password.

#1 How to Protect a Sheet in Excel?

Below are the steps for protecting the sheet in Excel:

1. First, open the worksheet you wish to save. Then, right-click the worksheet or go to “Review” and “Protect Sheet.” The option lies in the “Changes” group, then click on “Protect Sheet” from the list of options displayed.
   

2. It will prompt you to enter a password.
   

3. Insert the password as per choice.
   

4. The section below displays a list of options you can allow the users of the worksheet to perform. Every action has a checkbox. Check those actions you wish to enable the worksheet users to complete.
   

5. If no action is checked, the users may only VIEW the file and not perform any updates by default. Click on “OK.”
   

6. Re-enter the password as prompted on the second screen. Then, click on “OK.”

   
   

#2 How to Protect Cells in an Excel Worksheet?

To protect cells in Excel, follow the steps given below:

• Step 1: Right, click on the Excel cell you wish to protect. Then, select “Format Cells” from the menu displayed.

• Step 2: Go to the tab named “Protection.”

• Step 3: Check “Locked” if you wish to lock the cell in Excel. It will prevent the cell from editing, and we can only view the content. Check “Hidden” if you wish to hide the cell. It will hide the cell and so the content.

#3 How to Hide the Formula Associated with a Cell?

• Step 1: As shown below, cell F2 has a formula: D2+E2 = F2.

• Step 2: Below shows that the Excel cell is protected as “Locked” and “Hidden” as both the options are checked.

• Step 3: As a result, the formula is hidden / not visible in the formula bar, as shown below.

• Step 4: Upon unprotecting the sheet, the formula also starts appearing in the formula bar, as shown below.

Pros

1. A protected Excel sheet with a password is used to secure sensitive information from unwanted changes done by unauthorized entities.
2. Excel worksheet cell actions are access controlled. It means they can be configured to be available for some users and not others.

Cons

• If you protect an Excel sheet with a password, and if it is forgotten, it is non-recoverable. It means there is no automated or manual way of resetting or recovering the old password. It can cause data loss.

Things to Remember

1. The password of the protected sheet is case-sensitive.
2. The password of the protected sheet is non-recoverable.
3.  If no actions are checked in the “Protect Sheet” dialog window, the default accessibility is “View.” It means the others can view the protected worksheet and cannot add new data or make any changes to the cells in the worksheet.
4. Protecting the sheet is mandatory if one wishes to protect the cells as locked or hidden.
5. If the sheet is unprotected in ExcelOnce the workbook has been password-protected, one must input the exact password that was entered while protecting the workbook in order to unprotect it.read more, all the formatting/locking associated with the cells would be overridden/gone.
6. Locking a cell in Excel prevents it from making any changes.
7. Hiding a cell hides the formula associated with it, making it invisible in the formula bar.

Recommended Articles

This article is a guide to Protect Sheet in Excel. We discuss how to protect sheets in Excel, practical examples, and downloadable Excel templates. You may learn more about Excel from the following articles: –

• VBA UnProtect Sheet
• Vba Protect SheetVBA Protect Sheet is an In-built function that protects the worksheet with a password & prohibits the users from editing, deleting, or moving the contained data. read more
• Scroll Lock in ExcelWhen we press the down arrow key from any cell, it normally moves us to the next cell below it, but when we have scroll lock turned on, it drags the worksheet down while the cursor stays in the same cell.read more
• Lock Cells in ExcelIn Excel, cells are locked to protect them from unwanted editing, deleting, and overwriting. Locking cells is specifically beneficial in cases where an excel worksheet needs to be shared with several colleagues.read more
• Split Panes in ExcelSplitting panes in excel means splitting a workbook in different parts, this technique is available in the windows section of the View tab, panes can be split in horizontal or vertical way or it can be a cross split, the horizontal and vertical split can be seen in the mid-section of the worksheet however cross split can be done by dragging the panes.read more