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Lock only some or all Cells in Excel

in Office by (552k points)
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1 Lock all cells in Excel
2 Unlock all cells in Excel
3 Lock only some cells in Excel
4 Unlock only some cells in Excel
5 Lock workbook in Excel

Excel gives us the opportunity to work with large amounts of data in the spreadsheet and there are hundreds of configurations that we can make in the book for direct and complete work on the data. There is no doubt that this Office program is one of the most complete when it comes to carrying out calculation tasks and that the options it offers are immense, so it is interesting to know how to carry out different formulas to optimize and improve our performance in day to day work..

 

 

One of the most striking and necessary is to lock either all cells or just some cells of the spreadsheet. The reason for this is that some data must remain with the information set or format already assigned.

 

Let's remember that when applying a lock most of the editing or management functions of the cells and of the text and/or numbers will be disabled. In this tutorial we will teach you how to lock either all the cells or just some cells in Excel..

 

 

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1 Lock all cells in Excel

 

Step 1

First of all we will see how to block all the cells of the active sheet in Excel, we open Excel to see the data to work:

 

image

 

Step 2

We click on the upper corner of the cells to select all:

 

image

 

Step 3

We right click somewhere and select the "Format cells" option:

 

image

 

Step 4

A pop-up window will open, in the "Protect" tab we activate the "Blocked" box:

 

image

 

Apply the changes.

 

step 5

Now we go to the "Review - Protect sheet" menu:

 

image

 

step 6

The following window will open:

 

image

 

step 7

We validate that the "Select locked cells" and "Select unlocked cells" boxes are active and enter the password:

 

image

 

step 8

By clicking OK we must confirm the password:

 

image

 

step 9

We apply the changes and confirm that the menu options will be disabled for all sheets:

 

image

 


2 Unlock all cells in Excel

 

Step 1

In order to unlock all the cells to work some type of edition in them we must open Excel and go to the "Review - Unprotect sheet" menu:

 

image

 

Step 2

We enter the established password:

 

image

 

Step 3

We click OK to unlock the sheet:

 

image

 

Step 4

There it is possible to make some adjustments but to make them fully we click on the upper corner of the cells to select all the cells:

 

image

 

step 5

We right click somewhere and select "Format cells":

 

image

 

step 6

In the "Protect" tab we will see the following:

 

image

 

step 7

We deactivate the "Blocked" box:

 

image

 

step 8

Apply the changes and now it is possible to use the formats in the sheet:

 

image

 


3 Lock only some cells in Excel


It is possible that it is only necessary to block a group of cells on the sheet but not all the cells, for this case we open Excel.

 

Step 1

We select the cells to block and then we right click on them and select "Format cells":

 

image

 

Step 2

In the "Protect" tab we activate the "Blocked" box:

 

image

 

Apply the changes..

 

Step 3

Now we go to the "Review - Protect sheet" menu:

 

image

 

Step 4

We validate that the "Select locked cells" and "Select unlocked cells" boxes are active and enter the password:

 

image

 

step 5

We click OK and it will be necessary to confirm the password:

 

image

 

step 6

We apply the changes, we can select the range and confirm that the format options are disabled:

 

image

 


4 Unlock only some cells in Excel

 

Step 1

To unlock the range of cells in Excel, we open Excel and go to the "Review - Unprotect sheet" menu:

 

image

 

Step 2

Enter the current protection password:

 

image

 

Step 3

We select the range, right click and select "Format cells":

 

image

 

Step 4

In the "Protect" tab we will see this:

 

image

 

step 5

Uncheck the "Locked" box:

 

image

 

Apply the changes.

 

step 6

It is possible to apply formats in the cells of the range:

 

image

 


5 Lock workbook in Excel

 

Step 1

We also have the opportunity to lock the entire workbook to prevent changes, for this we open Excel and go to the "Review - Protect workbook" menu:

 

image

 

Step 2

Enter the password:

 

image

 

Step 3

We must confirm it:

 

image

 

These are the options to lock or not lock cells in Excel.

 


by (3.5m points)
edited

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