How to Lock Cells in Excel [Full Guide]

When you share your Excel sheet or workbook with anyone and the sheet is most important for you then you must need to know that ‘How to lock cells in Excel’ to protect the sheet or workbook. If you are working in a group or team which is doing the work on the same sheet or the same workbook. In this case, it is most important to lock the cells. If you don’t do this then anyone can edit the cell.

Locking the cells is too much easy because all the cells are already locked in the Excel sheet. They are locked by default. You don’t need to lock the cells you have to protect them from editing. I know that you are confused but you have no need to confuse, just read the article and don’t skip the single word of the article. You will understand the complete procedure of locking the cells.

How to Lock Cells in Excel

Now I am going to show you how to lock cells in Excel in other words how can you lock the cells which you want to protect from editing. So just read the process and you can also get the help of the content table. You can directly read the information which you want to read with the help of the content table. But I think that you have to learn the complete process for good knowledge of Excel.

How to Check that Cell are Locked or Not In Excel

As I said, all the cells are already locked. If you want to know how to check that all cells are locked then just follow these easy steps. Let’s see how to check locked cells.

1. Firstly you have to have to open Microsoft Excel. If you don’t have excel then you can download it. You have to just click on Microsoft Excel.
2. Open the sheet in which you want to lock the cells in excel.
3. Select the Whole sheet by pressing Ctrl + A on your keyboard.
4. Now just right-click on your sheet.
5. Now a toolbar will open and in this toolbar, you have to find Format Cells. When you find it then just click on it. You can also press Ctrl + 1 on your keyboard.
6. You need to open the Protection tab which is present in the upper section of the popup window.
7. Now you can see the option of locked and this option is already ticked.

Try this procedure on your PC. The option is already ticked and it means that all the cells are already locked. So the question is that how can you lock or protect that sheet or cells from editing. But you have no need to worry about that because I know which information you want so just read the article. You will get your information.

In this condition, you can also share a PDF file of an Excel sheet to your user, partner, or boss. So if you want to share a PDF file then you can know How to Convert the Excel sheet to PDF by just clicking on it.

How to Lock Cells In Excel (Complete Sheet)

When you want to send the sheet to anyone like your boss or any partner for checking and viewing. In this condition, you need to lock the complete sheet so that no one can edit your sheet. Now let’s see how to lock cells in excel or how to protect the sheet.

1. Firstly you have to open the sheet which you want to lock.
2. After that, you have to check that all the cells are locked or not. If you don’t know how to check then you can read the upper section of this article.
3. Now you have to open the Review section of the upper Menu Bar.
4. You can see the option of Protect sheet, Protect Workbook and Protect and Share Workbook.
5. If you want to protect only the sheet then you can click on Protect Sheet. If you want to protect the complete workbook then you can click on Protect Workbook.
6. When you choose the option to click which is available to protect your sheet or workbook then a Box will be open as a popup window.
7. You have to just enter or make the Password then just click OK. A popup window will open again in which you have to enter the same password again and then click OK.
8. After that, if you will try to click on any cell then this type of popup window comes in front of you and gives you a warning.

Now you and no one couldn’t be able to edit the sheet which you locked by following these easy steps. This workbook or sheet which you locked is now just usable for viewing. Now you can share this sheet with anyone and you don’t need to worry about the loss of data of the sheet.

How to Unlock the Sheet or Workbook

No one can open the sheet but if you want to edit the sheet then how can you unlock the sheet. All the persons can unlock the sheet who knows the password which you entered. So let’s see how to unlock the sheet or workbook.

1. Firstly you have to open the locked sheet which you want to unlock.
2. Now open the Review section of the menu bar.
3. In the review section, you can see the option of Unprotect Sheet. If you have locked the workbook then you can see the option of Unprotect workbook. You have to click on this option.
4. When you clicked on this option then a window will open in which you have to type the password.
5. After that, you have to click OK.

Now when you complete these easy steps, you can able to edit your sheet. You can edit all the cells of your sheet.

If you want to analyze the data of your excel sheet then you can use the graphs. You can also send the graphs of your excel sheet to your partner and users so that they can directly get the report. You have to just on the red text to get knowledge of Tricks to Make Amazing Graphs in Excel.

How to Lock Specific Cells in Excel

This is a very useful trick when you are working on one workbook in a team or group. If you want that no one can able to edit your data in your team which is working the same workbook then this is the most useful trick for you. Just follow these simple steps to lock specific cells in Excel.

1. Firstly you have to select the whole data or complete sheet by pressing Ctrl+A.
2. Now in the second step, you have to right-click on your sheet after selecting the whole sheet.
3. A toolbar will open in which you have to click on Format Cells. This option is available in the toolbar. You can also press Ctrl + 1.
4. When you click on Format cells a popup window will open in which you can see Protection tab just click on it.
5. In the protection tab, the option of Locked is available and you have to remove the tick from this option.
6. After that click Ok.
7. Now you have to select the cells which you want to lock.
8. Again follow these steps, firstly ‘Right Click’ then Click on Format Cells. You can click directly Ctrl + 1  on your keyboard.
9. Now you have to tick on Locked which is available in the protection tab and then click OK.
10. After that, you have to click on the section of Review which is available in Menu Bar.
11. You can see the option of Protect sheet, just click on it.
12. Now enter or make the password in the box which is opened in front of you. Again Re-Enter the password.
13. Just click OK.

Now no one can edit your cells after completing these easy steps. If you want to unlock the specific cells then the process is the same as How to unlock the cells which you find in the upper section of this article.

How to Protect the Entire Sheet except for Some Specific Cells

Many times you have in the condition in which you want that your teammate or user who is going to use the sheet. They can’t able to edit the complete sheet except for some specific cells which they can edit. If you want to learn how to protect the entire excel sheet except for some specific cells then follow these easy steps.

1. Firstly you have to open the sheet in which you want to protect the sheet excepting some specific cells.
2. Now select the cells which you want to unlock for your teammate or users.
3. After selecting those specific cells you have to Right Click and then just click on Format Cells. You can also press Ctrl + 1 on your keyboard to open directly.
4. In the protection tab, you can see the option of Locked you have to remove the tick from the box of locked. After that just click OK.
5. Now you have to open the section of Review which is available in Menu Bar.
6. You can see the option of Protect the Sheet or Protect the Workbook. Just click on any one option as your choice.
   
7. You have to just enter or make the Password then just click OK. A popup window will open again in which you have to enter the same password again and then click OK.
8. In the last step, you have to just click OK after completing the process of entering or re-entering the password.

So this is the complete process of lock the entire sheet excepting some cells. If you want to learn How to unlock this sheet then you can read the upper section of the article. In which we have described How to Unlock the sheet or workbook.

Important information

The Procedure for locking the cells in excel works in all the versions of Microsoft Excel and Windows. You can protect your excel sheet or workbook using any version of Microsoft Excel and Windows.

Read the complete article carefully and read each section of this article. All the sections are connected so you have to read the complete article. If you don’t read the complete article then you can face some problems in locking the sheet. So if you want the complete knowledge of How to Lock the Cells in Excel then you need to read the complete article for gaining the complete knowledge.

I hope that this information is helpful for you and you have got the answer to ‘How to Lock Cells in Excel’. You can lock any cell which you want to lock and also you unlock these cells easily if you have read the complete article carefully. If you want to make your excel sheet more excellent then you can read more articles related to Excel on this website The TechVin. On this website, you can get the articles on different types of problems related to Tech. You can easily solve any tech problem, You need to just search your problem on our website and you will get the detailed and step by step instruction to solve that problem. So read the articles on our website The TechVin.