When we share Excel spreadsheets with people for work, we often have some formulas, lists, or data that we wouldn’t like the other person to edit. When you need to do this, you can lock specific cells in your spreadsheet or the entire spreadsheet, so that others can’t change them when you send it to them.
How to Lock Cells in Excel
Locking cells in Excel doesn’t need much work. However, when locking cells, you can either choose to lock all cells, or some specific ones, or just the ones that have formulas. Let’s take a look at all three ways on how to protect cells in Excel.
How to Lock Specific Cells in Excel
If you’re wondering how to lock certain cells in Excel, you must begin by unlocking all cells. That’s because all cells in Excel are locked by default.
Click CTRL+A to select all cells. Right-click and choose Format Cells from the drop-down, or press CTRL+1. Go to the Protection tab and uncheck the Locked checkbox and click OK. Now, select specific cells you’d like to lock. For example, select cells A1 and A2. Right-click and choose Format cells once more. Go to the Protection tab and, this time, check the Locked checkbox and click OK. Locking cells has no effect till you protect the sheet. To protect the sheet, right-click on your worksheet tab. Click Protect sheet, enter a password, and click OK to confirm.
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How to Lock All Cells in Excel
All cells in Excel are locked by default. However, that has no effect till you protect your spreadsheet.
Select all cells. Right-click and choose Format Cells. Go to the Protection tab and click OK to confirm that all cells are locked. Now right-click on the worksheet tab. Click Protect Sheet. Enter a password and click OK to confirm.
If you’d like to unlock a worksheet, you can right-click on the worksheet tab and click Unprotect. Enter the password you had used before and click OK to confirm.
How to Lock Formula Cells in Excel
To lock cells that contain just formulas, you again have to begin by unlocking all cells.
Select all cells. Right-click and choose Format Cells. Go to the Protection tab and uncheck the Locked checkbox. Click OK to confirm. Next, click Find & Select on the Home tab in the Editing group. From the drop-down, choose Go to Special. Select Formulas and click OK to confirm. You’d see that all formula cells have been selected in Excel. Next, press CTRL+1 or right-click and go to Format Cells. On the Protection tab, check Locked and click OK to lock all formula cells. Protect the sheet by right-clicking on the worksheet tab to lock all formula cells.
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How to Unlock Cells in Excel to Edit Locked Cells
To unlock cells in Excel, you can go to the Protection tab by clicking on those specific cells and pressing CTRL+1, and uncheck the Locked checkbox. That’s not all.
To finalize your changes, unprotect your sheet, and you’re good to go.
Locking Cells in Excel Makes Them Non-Editable
The next time when you share Excel spreadsheets, and you’d like to prevent editing to some specific cells, use the steps mentioned above to lock them. It’s quick, easy, and a great fix to shared worksheet problems.
You can also lock entire columns by choosing the columns and following the exact same steps. No matter which cell you’re protecting, don’t forget to protect your sheet to register the changes.
