Working on your Microsoft Excel worksheet and stuck in between with formatting troubles? Worry, no more!
For business data recording and reporting, MS Excel is indispensable and getting in stuck in between is not an option. One of such hurdles that you might be facing while working on MS Excel is the locking of the respective cells.
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You need to both protect your worksheet and lock the cells carefully so that your data is safe and worked out in a more streamlined manner.
This article takes you through the easy steps involved in locking the cells on MS Excel. When you learn how to lock cells in MS Excel you would find working on it easier.
Steps to Lock Cells in Microsoft Excel
Thus, Let’s dive straight into understanding how to lock cells in Excel:
Step 1: In the foremost step, you would need to select all the cells. Make a right-click and choose Format Cells. For choosing Format Cells, press CTRL + 1.
Step 2: Go to the Protection tab. When you go to the Protection tab, it will help you confirm that all the cells have been locked successfully by default.
Step 3: Press OK or Cancel. Now you are sheet is protected. At this, you would be fining that the respective cells have been locked successfully.
Steps to Lock Specific Cells in Microsoft Excel
Now that was super easy to understand how to lock cells. The next immediate thing that you would need to understand more specifically is how to lock specific cells in MS Excel.
For locking specific cells in MS Excel, there are similarly few easy steps involved. Let’s get to lock specific cells in MS Excel.
Step 1: For locking specific cells in MS Excel, the beginning step is to unlock all cells. This is primarily applicable only when you have locked all cells previously. If all cells have not been locked previously, you can skip this step.
Step 2: Make a right-click and choose Format Cells. For choosing Format Cells, press CTRL+1.
Step 3: Go to the Protection tab. When you go to the Protection tab, you would find the checkbox that has a tick signifying that it has been locked. Uncheck Locked Check Box.
Step 4: Press OK.
Step 5: Choose specific cells that you wish to lock. E.g. Choose AI and A2 cell.
Step 6: Make a right-click and choose Format Cells. For choosing Format Cells, press CTRL+1.
Step 7: Go to the Protection tab. When you go to the Protection tab, you would find the checkbox that has not been ticked signifying that it hasn’t been locked. Check Locked Check Box.
Step 8: Press OK.
Keep in mind, that unless you protect the sheet, the locking of the cells would hold no good. Thus, even after locking specific cells, ensure that you have protected the sheet.
If you wish to edit the locked cells, you need to first unprotect the sheet.
While you working on locking the cells, you would need a few quick tips that would make your job easier.
One of such tips is preventing the locked cells from getting selected. This tip will ease you in entering the data into the sheet in a much easier and faster way.
When you turn on the Select locked cells option it would disable the locked cells from getting selected with either the keyboard or mouse.
Simplifying this would mean that when you wish to edit, you will be able to choose only the unlocked cells. Just press Tab or Enter or the arrow key for moving on to the immediate cell that you want to edit.
For doing this, you would need to:
- Go to the Protect Sheet window.
- Uncheck Select locked cells.
- Press OK.
Another tip to help you while you are locking the cells in Microsoft Excel is using different formatting. When you change the formatting of cells that you have locked, it will help other users on the sheet to have a visual clue that the respective locked cells should not be worked.
Thus, now that you have known how to lock cells in MS Excel, the next time you are working on any datasheet, investing your time in this article would pay off justifiably.
If you feel this article helped make it comprehensible for you to learn about locking cells in MS Excel, keep a keen eye out this space for more such tutorial blogs.
Never let yourself be stuck with the basics of MS Excel!
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Frequently Asked Questions (Faqs)
How do I Unprotect a Worksheet?
If you wish to unprotect a worksheet, here are the steps for your quick aid:
Make a right-click on the worksheet. Choose Unprotect Sheet.
Enter the respective password that you must have set for protecting the sheet.
Can I Lock Formula Cells too on Microsoft Excel? If Yes, How?
Yes, you can lock formula cells too on MS Excel:
Choose all cells. Make a right-click and choose Format Cells. For choosing Format Cells, press CTRL+1. Go to the Protection tab. Uncheck Locked Check Box. Take your cursor to the Home Tab and under Editing group, choose Find & Select. Choose Go To Special. Press on Formulas and hit OK. This will make Excel select all the cells that have a formula. Once again, hold CTRL+1 and visit the Protection Tab. Check the Locked Check Box and choose OK. Finish the process by protecting the sheet.
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