How to Lock Entire Workbooks in Excel 2007
Locking workbooks in Excel is a great way to prevent yourself of breaking the whole thing when you are not suppose to touch it. Protect yourself from such actions by locking the whole thing.
1) Click the Protect Workbook command button in the Changes group on the Ribbon’' Review tab and then click Protect Structure and Windows option on its drop-down menu or press Alt+RPWW.
Excel opens the Protect Structure and Windows dialog box, where the Structure check box is selected and the Windows check box is not selected. With the Structure check box selected, Excel won't let you mess around with the sheets in the workbook (by deleting them or rearranging them). If you want to protect any windows that you set up, you need to select the Windows check box as well.
2) To assign a password that must be supplied before you can remove the protection from the worksheet, type the password in the Password (optional) text box.
3) Click OK or press Enter.
If you type a password in the Password (optional) text box, Excel opens the Confirm Password dialog box. Re-enter the password in the Reenter Password to Proceed text box exactly as you type it into the Password (optional) text box in the Protect Sheet dialog box, and then click OK or press Enter.
Selecting the Protect Sheet command makes it impossible to make further changes to the contents of any of the locked cells in that worksheet except for those options that you specifically exempt in the Allow All Users of This Worksheet To list box. Selecting the Protect Workbook command makes it impossible to make further changes to the layout of the worksheets in that workbook.
Excel displays an alert dialog box with the following message when you try to edit or replace an entry in a locked cell:
The cell or chart you are trying to change is protected and therefore read-only.
To modify a protected cell or chart, first remove protection using the Unprotect Sheet command (Review tab, Changes group). You may be prompted for a password.
Usually, your intention in protecting a worksheet or an entire workbook is not to prevent all changes but to prevent changes in certain areas of the worksheet. For example, in a budget worksheet, you may want to protect all the cells that contain headings and formulas but allow changes in all the cells where you enter the budgeted amounts. That way, you can't inadvertently wipe out a title or formula in the worksheet simply by entering a value in the
wrong column or row (not an uncommon occurrence).
To leave certain cells unlocked so that you can still change them after protecting the worksheet or workbook, select all the cells as the cell selection, open the Format Cells dialog box (Ctrl+1), and then click the Locked check box on the Protection tab to remove its check mark. Then, after unlocking the cells you still want to be able to change, protect the worksheet as described earlier.
To remove protection from the current worksheet or workbook document so that you can again make changes to its cells (whether locked or unlocked), click the Unprotect Sheet or the Unprotect Workbook command button in the Changes group on the Ribbon’s Review tab (or press Alt+RPS and Alt+RPWW, respectively). If you assign a password when protecting the worksheet or workbook, you must then reproduce the password exactly as you assign it (including any case differences) in the Password text box of the Unprotect Sheet or Unprotect Workbook dialog box.
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