Excel is exceptional for keeping track of companies, something useful when there are several shifts or workers. But what happens when there is important content that you do not want to be touched, in this case knowing how to block or protect cells in Excel so that they are not modified, can be very useful, something that we will teach you here.
How to Lock or Protect Cells in Excel so they are NOT Modified
As we pointed out, there are circumstances in which protecting the information in the tables is essential. Environments where many people thrive can be the epicenter of disaster if by mistake crucial information is deleted or modified from your Excel tables
Don’t worry, today we will teach you how to lock cells in Excel to avoid this annoyance once and for all. In any case, if you want to use another method, you can also consider checking in and unprotecting sheets of an Excel Workbook using Macro .
How to lock or protect cells in Excel so that they are not modified
Locking cells in Excel can be very convenient to protect those data in a table that should not be modified. In general terms, the process can be done in a very short time, even so, certain doubts often arise that complicate the operation for newbies.
Why does locking cells become a complicated process?
Many might think that locking cells in Excel is a very simple process and indeed it is. The point is that the Microsoft program has its misleading aspects and this is where most users get it wrong.
Excel cells by default are locked or at least that is how they appear when we check the rows created in Cell Format , since the Locked function is natively checked .
So why, if cells are locked by default, can anyone modify the content? Precisely because to block them definitely it is necessary to establish a password. On the other hand, if this is not what you are looking for, you may need to set an Excel file to read-only mode , another way to protect your documents in this application.
Okay, now you might think that setting a password would solve the problem, but no. When a password is set for cell protection, this password will permanently block the editing of all cells, something inconvenient if you want to protect only some specific data .
The solution to the problem, lock Excel cells
As you will see, if you want to lock specific cells, simply setting a password will not be useful. To solve this problem, as contradictory as it may seem, the first thing you should do is unlock the cells . Follow these steps:
- The first point is to select all the cells. After this, press right click and locate the Format Cells option .
- A new window will appear, in which the Blocked option appears . As we said before, by default the cells appear as blocked, you must uncheck that option and press OK .
- Now select those cells that you want to protect. Once you’ve selected them, right-click and go to Format Cells again .
- In cell format you must activate the Blocked option .
- To continue with the process, go to Review, within this tab you will find the Protect Sheet option , click on it.
- After clicking on Protect Sheet, you will be asked to create a password. Enter a password that you can remember and click OK . You will be asked again for the password to confirm, enter it again and press OK.
As you will see, the previous method will protect the worksheet, before this you should know that it is possible to interleave between protecting and unprotecting the sheets of an Excel Workbook using macros, something that could also help you with this purpose.
Through this process you will be able to determine those parts of the document that anyone can modify and in turn those cells that you wish to protect . As you will see, the process is very simple, with just a few clicks to do it properly.
Stop worrying about your employees or coworkers modifying important data in Excel tables.
With this basic function of the program, you will adequately protect the pertinent information, leaving space for the one that warrants to be modified, in this way you will facilitate the operations of all those who handle the document.
In any case, as we have mentioned before, there are many ways to protect an Excel document, for example it is possible to encrypt or put a password to an Excel file , another option that many people recommend even over what we mentioned before.
