[ad_1]
Once you’re engaged on a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel, locking your cells is essential to defending knowledge, stopping errors, and extra. At present, we’ll present you tips on how to do it.
Why Lock Cells in a Spreadsheet?
In the event you collaborate with others on a workbook, you would possibly need to defend a cell by locking—particularly if you wish to make any adjustments or changes later. Locked cells can’t be reformatted, altered, or deleted. Locking cells works along side defending the workbook. To vary knowledge throughout the cells, they should be unlocked, and the sheet should be unprotected.
Locking Cells in an Excel Spreadsheet
You possibly can lock particular person cells or a number of cells utilizing this methodology. Right here’s tips on how to do it with a number of cells.
In a brand new or current Microsoft Excel doc, choose the cell or cell vary you want to lock. The cells you chose seem barely shaded, indicating they’re going to be locked.
Within the “Residence” tab on the ribbon, choose “Format.”
Within the “Format” menu, choose “Lock Cell.” Doing so will lock any of the cells you chose.
Another option to lock cells is to pick your cells, then right-click them to convey up a menu. In that menu, choose “Format Cells.” Within the “Format Cells” field, click on the “Safety” tab.
Within the “Safety” tab, click on the checkbox that claims “Locked” to allow cell locking. This performs the very same perform as locking cells within the format tab.
After that, your cells are locked. In the event you ever must unlock them, carry out the steps above in reverse. When you’ve completed locking your cells, it’s essential to defend your workbook.
Defending the Sheet
After you lock the cell, you’ll discover that it nonetheless allows you to change the textual content or delete content material. That’s as a result of, to ensure that locking cells to work, you have to additionally defend your sheet or workbook. Right here’s how. Within the Excel ribbon toolbar, click on “Overview.”
Within the ribbon below the “Overview” tab, choose “Shield Sheet.”
Within the “Shield Sheet” menu, you may create a password to guard the sheet and choose plenty of totally different parameters. For now, test the field marked “Shield worksheet and contents of locked cells.” Make some other changes you want and click on “OK” to guard the sheet.
Among the many different choices on the record, you may forestall different customers from deleting/inserting rows and columns, altering the formatting, or typically messing with the doc by clicking on them within the safety menu. As soon as the sheet is absolutely protected, nobody can entry the locked cells with out utilizing a password to unlock them first.
If it’s essential to unlock the worksheet later, revisit the Overview > Shield Sheet menu and uncheck “Shield worksheet and contents of locked cells.” Now that you understand how to lock cells, you may sleep safely figuring out your spreadsheets and workbooks received’t be altered with out being unlocked first. Completely happy locking!
RELATED: Find out how to Shield Workbooks, Worksheets, and Cells From Modifying in Microsoft Excel
[ad_2]