Whether you’re sharing a spreadsheet with coworkers, clients, students, or customers, there may be parts of your workbook that you don’t want others to accidentally edit. Excel allows you to lock cells, hide formulas, and protect worksheets or entire workbooks so you can control what others can change.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how these protection features work together and how to use them to help prevent accidental changes while still allowing users to edit the areas you choose.

Feature	What It Protects	When It’s Useful
Locked Cells	Prevents editing after sheet protection is enabled	Protect formulas or fixed data
Hidden Formulas	Hides formulas from the Formula Bar	Prevent users from viewing calculations
Protect Sheet	Controls what users can do on a worksheet	Most common protection option
Protect Workbook	Protects the workbook’s structure	Prevent adding, deleting, or moving sheets

---

What You’ll Learn

• How to lock cells in Excel
• How to unlock cells that should remain editable
• How to hide formulas from other users
• The difference between protecting a worksheet and protecting a workbook
• How to choose which actions users are allowed to perform
• How to password-protect your worksheet or workbook

---

Common Uses

• Protecting formulas from accidental changes
• Sharing templates with coworkers
• Creating fill-in forms
• Locking budget or financial calculations
• Protecting grading spreadsheets
• Preventing accidental edits to reports
• Sharing interactive Excel tools while protecting the underlying logic

---

Requirements / Compatibility

This tutorial was originally recorded in 2020, and the features shown continue to work in current versions of Microsoft Excel, including:

• Microsoft 365
• Excel 2024
• Excel 2021
• Excel 2019
• Excel 2016

Although the appearance of the Ribbon has changed slightly over time, the worksheet and workbook protection features remain largely the same.

---

Practice & Resources

No practice files are required for this tutorial.

If you’d like to follow along, simply open any Excel workbook containing formulas or sample data. The screenshots below show where to find each protection setting and explain what each option does.

---

Video Tutorial

---

Breaking Down the Concept

Excel’s protection features work together, but each one serves a different purpose. Understanding the difference makes it much easier to decide which settings to use.

Locked Cells

By default, every cell in Excel is marked as “Locked.”

However, this setting doesn’t actually do anything until you protect the worksheet.

Think of the Locked option as placing a lock on the door—but not turning the key yet. Once you choose Protect Sheet, Excel begins enforcing those locked and unlocked settings.

Why it’s used:

• Prevents users from editing important cells.
• Allows selected cells to remain editable if you unlock them first.

---

Unlocked Cells

If there are areas where users should be able to type information, select those cells first and remove the Locked check box in Format Cells → Protection.

Once the worksheet is protected, only those unlocked cells remain editable.

Why it’s used:

• Creates forms or templates that users can safely complete.
• Protects formulas while allowing data entry.

---

Hidden Formulas

The Hidden option doesn’t hide the cell itself—it hides the formula behind the cell.

Normally, selecting a formula cell displays the formula in the Formula Bar. After you check Hidden and protect the worksheet, users see only the calculated result, not the underlying formula.

Why it’s used:

• Protects complex formulas.
• Prevents accidental changes.
• Keeps worksheets cleaner for end users.

---

Protect Sheet vs. Protect Workbook

Excel provides two different protection options.

Protect Sheet

Protects the contents of a worksheet.

You decide exactly what users can and cannot do, such as:

• Edit locked cells
• Format rows or columns
• Insert or delete rows
• Sort or filter data

This is the option most people use.

---

Protect Workbook

Protects the workbook’s structure rather than individual cells.

For example, it can prevent users from:

• Adding worksheets
• Deleting worksheets
• Renaming worksheets
• Moving worksheets

This is useful when you want to preserve the overall organization of a workbook.

---

Password Protection

You can optionally require a password before someone can remove worksheet or workbook protection.

If you choose to use a password:

• Store it somewhere secure.
• Double-check that you’ve entered it correctly.
• Remember that Microsoft cannot recover a forgotten worksheet or workbook protection password.

For that reason, only use password protection if you genuinely need it.

---

Step-by-Step Instructions

Lock or Unlock Cells

1. Select the cells you want to change.
2. Right-click and choose Format Cells.
3. Open the Protection tab.
4. Check or uncheck Locked depending on whether the cells should be editable.
5. Check Hidden if you want to hide formulas.

---

Protect the Worksheet

1. Go to the Review tab.
2. Select Protect Sheet.
3. (Optional) Enter a password.
4. Choose the actions users should be allowed to perform.
5. Click OK.

---

Protect the Workbook

1. Go to the Review tab.
2. Select Protect Workbook.
3. (Optional) Enter a password.
4. Click OK.

---

Additional Tips

• Locking cells by itself doesn’t protect anything—you must also use Protect Sheet.
• Hiding formulas only works after the worksheet has been protected.
• If you use a password, save it in a secure password manager or another safe location.
• Consider unlocking input cells before protecting the worksheet so users can still complete forms.

Related Features

You may also find these Excel features helpful:

• Data Validation
• Conditional Formatting
• Protect Workbook
• Protect Sheet
• Hide Formulas
• Freeze Panes

---

---

Stay Updated

There are two easy ways to get notified when new tutorials are published:

Subscribe on YouTube for new video tutorials: @SimpleSoftwareTutorials

or enter your email below to receive new blog posts directly in your inbox: