Protect Workbook

How to protect a workbook in Excel so that a password is required to open, either as a read only or to make adjustments

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• Skill Level: 5
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Protect Workbook

Excel has the capabilities to protect workbooks so that certain passwords only allow viewing and other passwords allow changes.

For example, here we have a workbook that we want to protect. In order to do that we click on FILE , SAVE AS, and the normal dialogue box will appear. But for this option you need to go to the tools, GENERAL OPTIONS tab, and you will be asked to input a password. As you can see, it asks you for a password that will allow someone to open the file, and the password that will allow you to modify a file. So in here we are going to use the password open, and for modify we are going to use the password modify. When you click OK you are told to re enter the password to proceed, you will put in the open password , click OK, the password to modify is modify, click OK, and now when you save it, it will be saved with the password protection enabled.

Now we will click YES. We now going to close it down and let us open it up again and see what happens. Now you will see it says it is protected and you need to provide a password to read it. So we will use our open password, and say OK. It mentions that it is read only unless you have the password to modify it in which case we can type in modify, or we could click on read only if we only wanted to read it. We will say OK.

Now you have access to your workbook and you can make the changes you require.