Locking cells in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is a super useful thing to know how to do. It’s used to protect a certain segment or an entire worksheet from being modified by anyone other than the spreadsheet’s creator.
For example, if you’re an employer and youuse Microsoft Excelto create a spreadsheet with multiple drop-down lists for applicants, locking cells will prevent recipients of that form from tampering with any of the data.
Here’s a guide on how to lock cells in Excel.
Difficulty
What You Need
Microsoft Excel
Locking individual or multiple cells
Step 1:An Excel spreadsheet might already be locked. Therefore, to lock individual or multiple cells, you’ll have to unlock the spreadsheet first. To do this, click theGreen Diagonalbutton on the top-left side of the first cell.
Step 2:Right-click your mouse and select theFormat Cellsoption from the menu.
Step 3:Select theProtectiontab and unselect theLockedbutton. ClickOK.
Step 4:Now choose what cells you want to lock by clicking on them. You can select a single cell, multiple cells, a row, or an entire column.
Step 5:Within the selected cell or cells, right-click and chooseFormat Cells.
Step 6:Navigate to theProtectiontab again, select theLockedbox, and then clickOK.
Step 7:to confirm the locking of cells, click theReviewtab. Now click theProtect Sheetoption.
Step 8:Choose what sort of protection you want from all the options shown. By default, theSelect Locked CellsandSelect Unlocked Cellsfields are already ticked. You can also input a password for further protection. ClickOK.
The cells you’ve chosen will now be locked.
Locking an entire spreadsheet
Step 1:At the bottom of Microsoft Excel, right-click the spreadsheet you want to lock.
Step 2:Select theProtect Sheetoption. As explained in step 8, customize the different types of protection you want to apply to the spreadsheet, then clickOK. As we mentioned in step 1, Microsoft already locks an Excel spreadsheet, so you won’t need to take the steps to do so yourself.
Now you know how to lock and unlock cells and your Excel spreadsheet, you may retain better control over your data and avoid mistakes with entry.
Excel spreadsheets are considerably flexible, which makes the software suitable for all manner of purposes. If you knowhow to merge and unmerge cells in Microsoft Excel, you may use it for just about anything.
