To protect important data in Excel from being deleted or manipulation, it is necessary to lock the cells. Follow the steps mentioned in the article for the same.
It is important to protect the contents of a cell in order to prevent any accidental deletion or to prevent anyone from wrecking the integrity of calculations. If you have a complex formula that you have worked on and it has been tried and tested properly, it may be a good idea to block any further changes. This will ensure that the formula and the data are not manipulated.
Steps to be Followed
If you lock a cell and protect the worksheet, you will not be able to type anything into the cell or modify the existing data. You will not be able to change any other attributes of the cell such as the cell formatting.
- When you want to lock a major part of the Excel spreadsheet, select the cells that you do not want to lock. If these cells are not adjacent to one another, hold down the CTRL key and click the cells that you do not want to lock.
- Now go to the Format menu. Then click on Cells followed by the Protection tab.
- Now click to clear the checkbox Locked and then click on OK.
- Then go to the Tools menu and move over to the Protection tab. Click on Protect Sheet tab. If you want to protect the sheet furthermore, then you can also add a password. Give one if you want to and then click on OK.
- Now your spreadsheet is protected.
If you give a password, you will have to remember it along with the case that you have used. Passwords are case-sensitive. If you forget the password, your work will be irretrievable. As an option to protecting the worksheet cells, you can think about a Worksheet_Change macro. It can sense the cells that have changed.