How to protect certain cells in Excel.

If you do not want anyone to edit or modify any certain cells in Microsoft Excel, is it possible? Yes, it is possible and very easy to do so. You can protect certain cells in Excel. Today in this article I will share the way to do the task. By default, all cells in Excel are locked. When you protect the worksheet all the cells will be protected. If you want to protect certain cells you have to unlock all cells first.

How to protect certain cells in Excel

Action that needs to be taken to protect certain cells in Excel can be divided into the following three steps.

• Unlock all cells in a worksheet.
• Lock those certain cells in Excel to be protected.
• Protect your worksheet.

Unlock all cells

I said already, by default all cells in Excel are locked. You have to unlock those first. Otherwise, if you protect the worksheet all cells will be protected but we want certain cells in Excel to be protected. To unlock all cells in Excel follow the below instructions.

• Select all the cells in a worksheet. You can type a keyboard shortcut on your keyboard Ctrl+A. Or you can click the left top corner of your worksheet to select the entire worksheet cells.

• Right-click anywhere on the worksheet and select Format Cells.

• Go to the Protection tab and uncheck the Locked checkbox. Click OK. All your cells are now unlocked.

Lock Certain cells

Now, you have to lock those certain cells that you want to be protected. To do this task please follow the steps below.

• Select those certain cells in Excel.

• Right-click and select Format cells.
• Go to the Protection tab and check the Locked checkbox. Click OK.
• All your selected cells are now locked.

Protect your worksheet

The cells you want to protect are now locked. Remember that, unless you protect your worksheet locking cells has no effect. So, you have to protect your worksheet now. To protect your worksheet you can follow the steps below.

• Select those cells that you want to protect.
• Go to the Review tab, and click on Protect Worksheet under the Protect group.

• A new dialog box will appear. Give your password Select the top three checkboxes. Click OK.

• Retype your password in the confirm password box, Password is case-sensitive. Click OK to complete the task.

• You have done it. Selected cells are now protected.

You cannot edit or modify those certain cells. If you attempt to edit/modify you can see the following messages.

Read More: 20 Most common excel functions for a beginner

Why do you need to protect certain cells in Excel

This is a good question, why do you need to protect certain cells in Excel? Do you have the answer to this question? if not, I can give you the answer. If you are working with a team and you are the team leader. Suppose you want your team to fill certain cells. But you are thinking that they may modify some other cells also that you do not want to be.

In that case, you can protect those cells which you do not want to be modified. This is a great way to protect your cells to be modified.

Important Facts of protecting cells in Excel

• By default, all the cells are locked.
• Without protecting the worksheet, only locked cells will not add any values.
• Password is case-sensitive.
• If you lose or forget your password there is no chance to recover it.

How to unprotect worksheet

You have protected certain cells or the entire cells of a worksheet. But you need to know how to unprotect your worksheet or those selected cells, right? To unprotect follow the step below.

• Go to the Review tab and select Protect Sheet.
• A message box named Unprotect Sheet will appear asking you for the password.

• Type your password and press OK to unprotect the worksheet.

Display or Hide Formula

You are very near to learning another Excel tip. I can’t stop myself to share that with you. You can hide the Excel formula from the same place. If I do not share this here with you it will be a crime. How to hide the formula from the formula bar? To do the task follow the below instructions.

Unlock all cells in the excel sheet. Follow the above instruction to do this.

• Right-click the cell from where you want to hide the formula and select Format Cells.
• Check both the check boxes Locked and Hidden.
• Click OK.
• Go to the Review tab and click the Protect Sheet button.
• Give a password and protect your sheet as described above.
• Retype your password and click OK.

Now your Formula cells are locked, protected, and your formula is also not visible to anyone. By using your password you can unprotect the cell and visible your formula again.

Benefits of protecting cells in Excel

You have certain benefits of protecting cells in Excel. In short,  nobody will be able to edit or modify unless you unprotect cells. It protects your data from unauthorized persons. If you do not want anyone to change or view your formula you can protect it in this way. Your calculation and results will be secured in this way. Usually, people who are working in a big team and multiple people accessing the same Excel sheet can have the benefit of protecting the worksheet.

If you need to share your worksheet with another person you can also hide the formula from them. The formula bar will be blank, nobody will be able to see the calculation without the password.

Today, in this article, I have tried my best to guide you on how to protect certain cells in Excel. I hope, this content will be helpful to you. Still, if you have any queries or any question to know my comment box is always open for all of you. You can ask anything you want. I will try my best to reply to your comments. Thank You.