In this article, we’ll learn to password protect an Excel file. Password protecting your files is crucial and of utmost importance when dealing with confidential data, online or digitally.
Microsoft Excel enables you to keep your data safe by allowing you to protect files with a password you can set manually.
Steps to password protect an Excel file
Let’s get started with this step-by-step guide to protect your workbook and sheets with a password.
1. Password protecting an Excel workbook
To protect a workbook in order to restrict other people from adding or deleting sheets from a workbook or file in Excel-
- Open the file you want to protect.
- Go to the Review tab.
- Under Protect section, click Protect Workbook.
- A new window as Protect Structure and Windows to set a custom password to protect your workbook or file.
- Once you’ve set a password, you will be asked to re-enter your password in Confirm Password window.
- Hit OK to proceed.
- Save the file and close Excel.
- Re-open it to check if your file is password protected.
You can see that you can no longer make structural changes like moving, adding, or deleting sheets in this workbook unless you unlock it with a password.
2. Unprotecting a workbook in Excel
To unprotect your workbook:
- Go to the Review tab.
- Under the Protect section, click Protect Workbook.
- A window opens called Unprotect Workbook.
- Enter the password to unprotect your workbook.
Your workbook is now unprotected and you can add, move or delete the sheets in this file.
3. Password protecting an Excel sheet
To protect a sheet in order to restrict other people from editing cells in a file in Excel-
- Stay in the sheet you want to password-protect.
- Go to the Review tab.
- Under Protect section, click Protect Sheet.
- A new window as Protect Sheet to set a custom password to protect your sheet.
- You can select what actions to be allowed by others users while the sheet is protected.
- Once you’ve set a password, you will be asked to re-enter your password in Confirm Password window.
- Hit OK to proceed.
- Try editing a cell and this is what you should see-
You can see that your sheet is completely protected with a custom password set by yourself. Other members can create a new sheet but cannot edit any password protected sheet.
4. Unprotecting a sheet in Excel
To unprotect your sheet-
- Go to Review tab.
- Under Protect section, click Unprotect Sheet.
- A window opens called Unprotect Sheet.
- Enter the password to unprotect your sheet.
Your sheet is now unprotected and you can edit and make changes to the cells within that sheet.
Conclusion
This was a complete step-by-step guide to help you protect your Excel worksheets or workbooks to make them secure with a password lock. If you have any doubts regarding protecting files in Excel, drop a comment below and we will be happy to help you out!