Protect an Excel Sheet by Locking the Entire Sheet in Excel 2007
After you more or less finalize a worksheet by checking out its formulas and proofing its text, you often want to guard against any unplanned changes by protecting the document.
Each cell in the worksheet can be locked or unlocked. By default, Excel locks all the cells in a worksheet so that, when you follow these steps, Excel locks the whole thing up tighter than a drum.
1) Click the Protect Sheet command button in the Changes group on the Ribbon's Review tab or press Alt+RPS.
Excel opens the Protect Sheet dialog box in which you select the check box options you want to be available when the protection is turned on in the worksheet. By default, Excel selects the Protect Worksheet and Contents of Locked Cells check box at the top of the Protect Sheet dialog box. In addition, the program selects both the Select Locked Cells and Select Unlocked Cells check boxes in the Allow All Users of This Worksheet To list box below.
2) (Optional) Click any of the check box options in the Allow All Users of This Worksheet To list box (such as Format Cells or Insert Columns) that you still want to be functional when the worksheet protection is operational.
3) If you want to assign a password that must be supplied before you can remove the protection from the worksheet, type the password in the Password to Unprotect Sheet text box.
4) Click OK or press Enter.
If you type a password in the Password to Unprotect Sheet 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 in the Password to Unprotect Sheet text box in the Protect Sheet dialog box and then click OK or press Enter.
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 UnprotectSheet or Unprotect Workbook dialog box.
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