Excel Trick – Sheet Protection – Protect it and Stay Free

.

Dear Readers,

I am back with another Excel Trick which is very much common while managing your sheet with certain security (protection). To protect the whole Worksheet can be easily done by using the Protect Sheet option available in Microsoft Excel. But in this article I am going to explain you, How to protect your whole sheet except a cell or cell range.
One of my avid reader Avinash Dubey wanted me to post an article on Disabling/protecting rest all the cells which are unused.

Hey Vishwa,
 
Background is changed as per the second method but I want unused space disabled. I mean, the cells where user has provided the data can be formatted and rest of the cells (unused) should be white and disabled.
 
Please post this topic.
 
Thanks,
Avinash

Here I am going to put all possible ways of disabling or preventing users from accessing unused cells in your worksheet.

Protect whole Sheet except the range you want to allow user to edit

You might be knowing about Protect Sheet option available in Excel in Review Tab . Using this option you can protect your whole Worksheet by providing a password (Passing a password is not mandatory). It does not work only on selected area rather it protects the whole sheet.
 
Now the question is how to protect all sheet except the area which you want user to be able to edit Follow the below steps to achieve this:
 

Step 1.

Select the Cell or Cell Range you want user to be able to edit

Step 2.

Right click on Selected Cell or Cell Range and click on Format Cells
How to Format Cells

Step 3.

Go to Protection Tab and Un-Check the checkbox shown in the below image
Uncheck the Checkbox - Locked

Step 4.

Now go to Review Tab and Click on Protect Sheet
Protect-sheet Option

Step 5.

Now Enter a password to protect the sheet and click Ok
Protect-sheet-with-password

Step 6.

Now re-enter the password and click on Ok
Re-enter-password

Now your whole worksheet is protected except the areas you selected to change the formatting above

You are done now !! Your whole sheet is protected except the area you wanted users to edit. Now no one can edit the sheet beyond the cells you provided an access to. Then go and Enjoy your freedom 🙂 your sheet is protected now 🙂

If you too have any Excel Tip to share or Want an Article to be published, let me know by putting your tips and suggestions in comment

Buy a coffee for the author

Adsense

Download FREE Tools and Templates

There are many cool and useful excel tools and templates available to download for free. For most of the tools, you get the entire VBA code base too which you can look into it, play around it, and customize according to your need.

Dynamic Arrays and Spill Functions in Excel: A Beginner’s Guide
Dynamic Arrays and Spill Functions in Excel: A Beginner’s Guide

In today's tutorial, we'll be diving into the exciting world of dynamic arrays and spill functions in Office 365 Excel. These features have revolutionized the way we work with data, providing a more flexible and efficient way to handle arrays. I am going to explain...

How to Declare a Public Variable in VBA
How to Declare a Public Variable in VBA

While programming in VBA sometimes you need to declare a Public Variable that can store the value throughout the program. Use of Public Variable: Let's say you have 4 different Functions in your VBA Code or Module and you have a variable that may or may not be...

How to Copy content from Word using VBA

As many of us want to deal with Microsoft Word Document from Excel Macro/VBA. I am going to write few articles about Word from Excel Macro. This is the first article which opens a Word Document and read the whole content of that Word Document and put it in the Active...

What is Excel Formula?

Excel Formula is one of the best feature in Microsoft Excel, which makes Excel a very very rich application. There are so many useful built-in formulas available in Excel, which makes our work easier in Excel. For all the automated work, Excel Macro is not required. There are so many automated things can be done by using simple formulas in Excel. Formulas are simple text (With a Syntax) which is entered in to the Excel Worksheet Cells. So how computer will recognize whether it is a formula or simple text? Answer is simple.. every formula in Excel starts with Equal Sign (=).

You May Also Like…

4 Comments

  1. Avinash Dubey

    Thanks a ton Vishwa.

    This post is really helpful.

    Thanks,
    Avinash Dubey

    Reply
    • Vishwamitra Mishra

      Thanks Avinash 🙂

      Reply
    • Srinivasarao

      Hi Vishwa,

      It is a good Post. But, I got some code in vba which we can easily remove the password from the protected sheet. Is there any another way to protect the worksheet. Please help me in this issue.

      Regards,
      Srinivasarao Kanchi

      Reply
  2. Ravi

    Hi Wishwa,

    I have an excel sheet where I track my time in office. I want the columns with time to be protected in such a way that when I change value in another cell the time gets populated but those columns should not let anyone edit the values manually. Is it possible.

    Reply

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Learn Excel Macro Excel Tip : How to Make an Excel Cell secured for Password - [...] First of all you need to decide which range or cells you want to allow users to edit. Why…
  2. Excel Tip : How to Make an Excel Cell secured for Password | Unified Networking - […] First of all you need to decide which range or cells you want to allow users to edit. Why…
  3. Excel Tip : How to Make an Excel Cell secured for Password - Welcome to LearnExcelMacro.com - […] First of all you need to decide which range or cells you want to allow users to edit. Why…
  4. Excel Macro : Excel VBA code to Protect OR UnProtect Sheet - Let's excel in Excel - […] Excel Trick – Sheet Protection – Protect it and Stay Free […]

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Join and get a FREE! e-Book

Don't miss any articles, tools, tips and tricks, I publish here

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Pin It on Pinterest