You should password protect your Excel files to keep your spreadsheets safe.
Email inboxes, social media accounts, and even our devices—virtually everything important is protected by some kind of password. How to Create a Strong Password You Won't Forget How to Create a Strong Password You Won't Forget Do you know how? To create and remember a good password? Here are some tips and tricks for keeping passwords strong and separate for all your online accounts. Read More If you trust an Excel spreadsheet for whatever reason, it's worth considering whether you should also add password protection to it.
Whether you want to restrict access to the entire document, or simply prevent certain people from making changes to the file, it only takes a minute or two to set up a password. Improve web security by using Chrome's auto-generated passwords Improve web security by using Chrome's auto-generated passwords Did you know that Chrome has a built-in password generator? Read more . If your spreadsheet falls into the wrong hands, the results could be disastrous, so it's worth taking the time to do some thinking.
Excel makes it easy to encrypt your spreadsheet by locking it with a password. It only takes three easy steps:
However, depending on what you're trying to protect, the exact method you use might change slightly.
The most common method of enforcing password protection on an Excel spreadsheet is through encryption. Why we should never let the government break encryption. Why we should never let the government break encryption. backdoor encryption. But it is not practical. Here is why encryption is vital to everyday life. Read more . This means that every time someone opens the file, they must enter a password.
Open your document and navigate to File> Info> Protect Workbook .
Select Encrypt with password from the drop-down menu, then enter the desired password in the dialog that follows.
You will have to re-enter the password later. The next time you open the document, you will be prompted to enter it to continue.
This should go without saying, but make sure you don't forget the password 560 million old passwords have been leaked online 560 million old passwords have been leaked online It's probably time to change your passwords again. Because a huge database of 560 million login credentials has been found online, waiting to be discovered by users. Read more ! Ending up without access to an important spreadsheet can cause some serious headaches.
Setting up basic encryption is pretty straightforward, but Excel actually offers a bit of flexibility when it comes to password protection. For example, what if you want someone to be able to open the document, but you require them to enter a password if they want to make edits. That kind of system is very easy to implement.
Click through File> Save As> More Options .
Click on the Tools button and select General Options from the dropdown menu.
Here, you will notice that there are two different fields; Password to open and Password to modify . You can leave the latter blank if you want to restrict editing privileges without restricting access to the document itself. When you're done, simply click OK .
The next time you open the document, you'll get a slightly different password prompt, as you can see above.
If your document has more than one sheet How to split a huge CSV Excel spreadsheet into separate files How to split a huge CSV Excel spreadsheet into separate files One of the shortcomings of Microsoft Excel is the limited size of a spreadsheet . If you need to make your Excel file smaller or split a large CSV file, read on! Read More
Go to the review tab and click Protection sheet .
Here you can enter the desired password for the current sheet.
However, you will notice that there are also a number of checkboxes that will allow all users to access certain functionality. This can be useful if you want to give them the ability to sort columns, but not make any lasting changes, for example.
One last situation:Your spreadsheet uses VBA macros, and you want to allow anyone to edit the document, but add some extra protection to the code you've written. Here's how to do that.
Create a new macro. You can choose any name you want, I'm just using "password" as a placeholder.
For the purposes of this guide, I will use the following code:
Rango ("A1"). Valor = "Protegido por contraseña"However, in practice, you will only use the macro How to Build a Custom Excel Toolbar from VBA Macros How to Build a Custom Excel Toolbar from VBA Macros Ready to increase your Microsoft Excel productivity? A custom toolbar can do just that. We'll show you how to put all your Excel macros at your fingertips. Read More In the Visual Basic Editor, navigate to Tools> VBAProject Properties .
On the Protection tab, you will find a checkbox that will allow you to lock the project for viewing. There are also fields where you can add password protection to access project properties.
It's worth noting that while this type of protection can be useful, it does have its limitations. Read this guide on how to recover and Excel VBA password. How to recover an Excel VBA password. How to recover an Excel VBA password stuck with an Excel VBA document that is locked with a password? We will show you how to remove password protection to retrieve VBA macro content. Read More
When It Comes to an Important Spreadsheet 5 Excel Document Settings You Should Never Forget to Review 5 Excel Document Settings You Should Never Forget to Check When you select an Excel template or share a spreadsheet, it may contain custom settings that you don't want anyone to see. to see. Always check these settings. Read More
Many workplaces use a shared Excel document to accomplish all kinds of tasks. Whether it's a timesheet or an interactive dashboard 3 Excel Dashboard Tips You Must Try 3 Excel Dashboard Tips You Must Try Use our Excel Dashboard tips to organize and display spreadsheet data complex. With your dashboard tidy, you'll see key data points at a glance. Read More
Yes, it takes a few seconds to enter your password, but it's worth it. Take the time to consider whether you really need to protect the entire document or just specific parts, and you'll be sure to minimize any inconvenience.
Plus, it's sure to be a lot more inconvenient if someone sneaks into your spreadsheet, deletes all your data, and overwrites the file.
Do you have any tips on how to add a password to an Excel document? Or are you looking for help with one of the methods described in this article? Either way, why not join the conversation in the comments section below?