A few tricks to take you beyond the basics of Microsoft Office 2007

Gwinnett County Public Schools

A few tricks to take you beyond the basics of Microsoft Office 2007

Microsoft Excel 2007: Stop Unauthorized Changes in Cells.

GCPS Tech Tips

Did you ever finish putting information into an Excel worksheet and start thinking, “I wish there

were some way to keep anybody else from messing up this worksheet.”

EXCEL 2007: Stop Unauthorized Changes in Cells

There is a way to protect one cell... or a group of cells... or even a whole worksheet from tampering

by other people. If you share a worksheet with other people, you can specify which cells they can

and cannot change.


The first step is to select the cell or cells that you do not want protected... the ones that you are willing for others to make changes in. Select

those cells...


Then... with your cursor on those selected cells... press the right button on your mouse.


That will drop down a list of things you can do to the selected cells. Click on “Format Cells.”


That will open a “Format Cells” dialog box with six tabs across the top. Find the tab that says

“Protection” and click on it.


At the top of the “Protection” page, you’ll see the words “Locked” and “Hidden.” Make sure

neither word has a check mark by it...


and click “OK” at the bottom of the dialog box.


Now that you have told Excel what not to protect, you can tell it to protect every other cell in the worksheet. To lock the whole worksheet, click

on “Tools” at the top of your screen.



Then click on the Format option in the Cells box.

That will drop down a list of Excel tools.


In the Protection section, you will see “Protect Sheet.” Click on that and...


Excel opens a “Protect Sheet” dialog box with lots of choices.


You put a check mark here to protect the whole worksheet.


A password is not required, but if you want to use a password, you can type it in here. (Be sure you write

that password down somewhere because, if you forget it, there won’t be any way to find it again.) Of course,

without a password, anybody who knows their way around Excel could go in and reverse the restrictions

you are putting in place.


If you do choose to use a password, clicking on “OK,” will bring up one more box that Excel uses to confirm your

password. Don’t forget that this password is case-sensitive – you have to enter it every time with capital

and lower case letters just the way you originally entered it.


One final click on “OK” and your worksheet is protected except for the cells in which you were

willing to allow changes.


If someone tries to enter anything into any of the protected cells, they will receive a warning that

looks like this.


But, if they select any of the cells you left changeable, they will be able to make any

changes there that they like.


To unprotect a worksheet, click “Format” from within the Cells window under the Home tab ...


then click on “Unprotect Sheet.”


You’ll have to type in the password if there is one...


But after that, a click of “OK” takes you back to where you can make changes

anywhere in the worksheet.


That’s all there is to it. Now, if you would like a copy of the step-by-step directions for stopping unauthorized changes in cells within Excel 2007, just print this last

page. Have fun controlling those changes!Step-by-Step to control changes in cells:

- Select the cell (or cells) that you do not want to protect. - Put your cursor on those cells and press the right button on your mouse.- On the drop down list, click “Format Cells.”- In the dialog box, click the “Protection” tab.- Make sure “Locked” and “Hidden” are not checked.- Click “OK.” - In the Home tab, click on “Format” within the Cells window.

- Click on “Protect Sheet.”- Type in a password of your choice.- Click “OK.”- Type in your password again.- Click “OK.”

To unprotect a worksheet:- Click “Format” within the Cells window from the Home tab.- Click “Unprotect Sheet.”- Type your password.- Click “OK.”


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A few tricks to take you beyond the basics of Microsoft Office 2007