Suppose you have your worksheet and want to share it with your colleagues. And you don't want the content in some or s cell to be altered. Excel allows you to block cells or lock them. That means cell content cannot be changed. Sometimes it can be locked with a password or just be locked; hence you cannot change the data. Here are ways to do all this.
1. Open your workbook or open Microsoft office excel.
2. Navigate to the "home tab " below the alignment section, click the drop-down arrow, and the format cell window will be displayed.
3. Go to the Protection tab. Click to uncheck the locked check box. After that, click ok to close the pop-up.
Take note when we try this on a workbook or worksheet that is not protected. You will see cells are always locked. All cells are ready to lock when we protect the worksheet or workbook.
4. Go to the review tab at the ribbon. Go to change group; you can select protect workbook or worksheet, then reapply protection in step 3. At this time, check the box to apply for the protection. It will ask for the password. Add your password, and if you want other users to have some authority, you can check the boxes. Look at the screenshot.
If you want changes to any of the cells is better you unlock the workbook before locking it up. You can also unlock them after placing the protection. To remove the protection, remove the password.
Hiding the Formula
After you have locked the cells and protected the worksheet, we need to hide our formulas. When they are unlocked, some people can change them. That means all the work we have been doing amounts to nothing.
When a cell with a formula is selected, all the formulas will be displayed in the formula bar. Here are the steps to "hide formulas" in cells.
1. Select all cells with formulas on your workbook.
2. Go to the home tab, find the editing group, and select find and select.
3. From the menu, click Go to special.
4. Select special within the Go, select formulas, and click ok. This will select all cells that have the formula.
5. Go to format cell, dialog box. You can press CTRL + 1. It will open the format cell, or you can right-click on the cells you have selected and then choose the format cells.
6. Select the Protection tab and check the last option hidden.
Click ok. No formula will be displayed when the cells are selected.
Now, a user selects the cells with a formula no formula will be displayed at the formula bar. It means it cannot be altered in any way. Locking cells and not hiding the formula won't prevent data from being altered. All this can be undone if you are ok with them adding their ideas and opinion to your workbook.