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

Gwinnett County Public Schools

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

Microsoft Excel:

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: 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.


That will drop down a list of Excel tools.


If you put your cursor on the word “Protection” it will show you a list of approaches to protecting

your worksheet.


One thing on that list is “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 “Tools”...


put your cursor on the “Protection” choice...


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, 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.”

- Click on “Tools” at the top of the screen.

- Click on “Protection.”

- 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 “Tools” at the top of the screen.

- Click “Protection.”

- Click “Unprotect Sheet.”

- Type your password.

- Click “OK.”

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