How to Password Protect Worksheets in Excel 2007

Worksheets often require password protection to lock down the data within.

There are many reasons for needing password protection for a worksheet within a workbook. If you have a worksheet that contains sensitive and important data feeding a pivot table, you may want to password protect the worksheet with the data. Maybe the worksheet has a macro importing data from another source you need to protect in order to prevent the data from being changed accidentally. Whatever the reason, these simple steps will walk you through the process to password protect and secure the worksheet.

Instructions

Protect the Entire Worksheet

1. At the bottom of the Excel file, select the worksheet (tab) you wish to protect.

2. Click the "Review" tab on the toolbar at the top of your screen.

3. Click "Protect Sheet" in the "Changes" section of the "Review" tab. A small screen will pop up with the cursor in a blank box.

4. Type the password you wish to use to protect the worksheet. Click "OK" at the bottom. Another screen will pop up asking you to retype the password to verify you typed it correctly the first time.

   Before you click "OK," read the caution on this screen informing you of the dangers of forgetting your password. Click "OK." Your worksheet is now protected.

Allow Certain Cells to be Edited Without a Password

1. Highlight any cells you want others to be able to make changes to within the worksheet while it's protected and without the password. You can highlight consecutive cells while holding down your left mouse button and dragging your mouse over the desired cell area or you can hold down the Ctrl key and click on individual cells to select cells that are not next to each other.

2. Click the "Home" tab on the toolbar at the top of the Excel file.

3. Click "Format" on the "Cells" section of the "Home" tab to reveal a drop-down menu. In the drop-down menu, in the "Protection" section, the lock icon labeled "Lock Cell" should be highlighted. Click on "Lock Cell" to remove the highlight from the icon and unlock the cell(s) that you had selected previously.

4. Follow the steps outlined in "Protect the Entire Worksheet." This will lock the entire worksheet while leaving the cells you selected (unlocked) free for editing.

Tips & Warnings

• A workbook is another name for an Excel file. A worksheet is a name that references a single tab within the workbook.

• Password protecting a worksheet does not password protect the entire workbook.

• There is no recovering the password should you lose it. If lost, there is no way of unlocking the worksheet.