Lock Cells in Excel
You can lock cells by using Excel’s built-in options. Locking a cell protects it from being edited by other users. We have divided this tutorial into three different sections: lock all cells, lock specific cells, and lock formula cells.
Lock All Cells
If you protect your worksheet, all cells become locked by default. Let’s follow the steps below.
1. Select all cells.
2. Right click and select Format cells (keyboard shortcut: CTRL + 1).
3. Click on the Protection tab and check the Locked box.
4. Click OK or Cancel.
Note: Locking cells have no effect until you protect the sheet)
5. Now, Protect the sheet because locking cells has no effect until you protect the sheet.
Note: If you want to unprotect the cells, simply follow the steps of unprotecting sheet. (Hyperlinked) The password we used to unprotect the sheet is “protect”.
Lock Specific Cells
If you want to lock specific cells instead of locking the whole sheet, you need to unlock all cells first. Here are the steps.
1. Follow the steps (1 to 3) of “Lock All Cells”. In the protection tab, uncheck the box Locked and click ok.
2. Select cells B1 to B7.
3. Like lock all cells, right click on the selected cells, select Format cells and check the box Locked in the Protection tab.
Locking cells have no effect until you protect the sheet.
4. Now, Protect the sheet.
Note: Cell B1 to B7 are locked now. To edit these cells you have to unprotect the sheet. The password we used to unprotect the sheet is “protect”.
Lock Formula Cells
To lock all cells that have formulas, you have to unlock all cells then lock formula cells. Let’s follow the steps below.
1. Follow the steps (1 to 3) of “Lock All Cells”. In the protection tab, uncheck the box Locked and click ok.
2. In the Home tab, go to the editing section and click on Find & Select.
3. Click Go To Special.
4. Select Formulas and click Ok.
Now, Excel will select the cells that have formulas.
5. Right click on the selected cells and select Formal cells.
6. Check the Locked box in the protection tab. (Note: if you check the Hidden box, then other users cannot see the formula in the formula bar when they select the formula cells.)
Locking the cell will not have any effect until you protect the sheet.
7. Now, Protect the sheet.
Finally, all of the formula cells are locked. If you want to edit the cells, then unlock the cells by unchecking the Locked box in the Protection bar. (Always remember your password)
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