Protect Your Work!

Well, you probably don’t have a Doberman Pincher to Protect your Excel work, but you have easy-to-access tools that will help you out with this important task. Maybe you are asking “Why is this necessary?” Maybe you have never done this, and never had a problem. Trust me, however, if others are viewing/using your workbooks, there will come a time when they will want to “Experiment” with your formulas and format. You don’t want this to happen!

Let’s take Excel 2007 for a How-To Example:

Protecting and Unprotecting a Worksheet with a Password

1. If there are specific cells that you wish to enable users to modify (such as DropDown Boxes in a report), go to the Review tab and select the Allow Users to Edit Ranges in the Changes group and select the range you wish to keep accessible.

2. Next, click the Protect Sheet button in the same group. Excel opens a dialog box, where you can Assign a Password, and select the Permissions you wish to be available to the users.

3. Click OK

You can easily Unprotect the worksheet with the password anytime you wish to make changes. And, of course, as this can cause a business disaster (people have been fired for losing this), Be Sure to Keep Track of the Password. I know, it barely warrants mentioning, but it does happen.

This is a good habit and certainly a Best Practice for any Excel practitioner. Give it a shot if you haven’t already!