Understanding how to secure an Excel file with a password is crucial for protecting sensitive data when the security of information is of the utmost importance. This tutorial will show you how to use passwords and encryption to keep your Excel workbook and sheets safe from viewing or editing by unauthorized persons.
Password Protect an Excel File
Adding a password to your Excel file allows you to either safeguard specific Excel sheets or perhaps individual cells from unauthorized modifications, or you can protect the entire Excel file from access. To avoid the alteration or changing of content and data mistakenly, the first option encrypts the entire file, while the second option uses the password as read-only protection.
The fundamentals of protecting Excel spreadsheets
Users may find patterns in data and organize a ton of data into insightful understandings with the aid of Excel and Google Sheets. By safeguarding these files with a password, you can prevent unwanted alterations and unlawful access to your data, confidential information, and labor of love. For instance, you wouldn’t want your spouse to discover and access the spreadsheet that lists every detail of the food, décor, and entertainment for the surprise birthday celebration you’re throwing for them. Excel comes with built-in encryption and password security tools that allow you to limit file access and lock down specific areas of your document. Nevertheless, Google Sheets does not contain this feature. Use an Apps Script code-containing template if you want to password-protect a Google Sheet.
Therefore, Excel might be a simpler solution for you if you must password-protect your spreadsheets.
The top reasons why Excel users might desire to encrypt their files are as follows:
- Security: Excel helps protect sensitive data by preventing unauthorized access and by requiring a password to open.
- Preventing user mistakes: restricting rights or using a password protects Excel files from inadvertent or accidental changes, which lowers the possibility of corruption or loss of information due to human error.
- Version control: Excel’s version control tool helps preserve data consistency and integrity over time by limiting who may track, approve, and review changes. Only authorized users can make these decisions.
- Protection of intellectual property: Excel workbooks may include confidential computations, formulas, or business plans that grant the user a competitive edge. Unauthorized individuals cannot duplicate or access password-protected Excel files.
Selecting the appropriate Excel password protection level
Worksheets, cells, or the whole workbook can have different levels of protection applied to them:
- Workbook protection: Password-protecting an Excel file prevents anyone from seeing, editing, or even opening it without an appropriate password.
- Excel file encryption enables you to use a password to encrypt the whole worksheet. By using encryption, it is possible to prevent unauthorized individuals who do not have the decryption key from viewing or changing a file’s contents. Excel users have the option to conceal spreadsheets; they use this frequently for internal computations or reference data.
- Worksheet protection: You can password-protect individual worksheets in Excel to stop users from adding or removing sheets, changing the contents of cells, or changing the formatting.
- Cell security: In Excel, you can lock individual cells, columns, or rows to prevent formatting or editing changes. This helps to avoid unintentional changes or version control problems.
Password-protecting spreadsheets and cells is not a security feature. It merely stops changes to the worksheet’s locked parts. An Excel file must demand a password to open it, thereby limiting access to the file.
Encrypting a spreadsheet
Encrypting your Excel file allows you to go beyond password protection. Excel file encryption increases security by converting private information into an encrypted format, rendering it unreadable by unauthorized users, and guaranteeing the privacy of your data.
Security of passwords against encryption
- To obtain authorization to access a password-protected Excel file, it is imperative to furnish an accurate password. The utilization of passwords functions as a mechanism for limiting access to the file, therefore regulating the individuals who possess the ability to gain admittance. This suggests that individuals who hold the appropriate password have the power to modify the document.
- The process of encryption improves security by transforming the information stored in a file into an intricate cipher, making it challenging to decode without possessing the appropriate encryption key. This implies that in the case of an illegal breach of your document, the displayed information will manifest as disordered and incomprehensible data. Microsoft uses a sophisticated encryption technique referred to as AES-256.
Use this short guide to encrypt your Excel workbook:
- Click File and choose Info.
- Click on the Safeguard Workbook.
- Then choose Encrypt With Password from the list menu.
- Provide a password in the Password section of the Encrypt Document display window and click OK.
- In the Re-enter Password section, type the password once more, then click OK.
- Put the workbook away.
Granting Excel read-only access
Suppose you would like to distribute to your team an Excel file that contains your weekly reports. But since you are unwilling to take the chance of any unintentional changes from your teammates, you just want your supervisor to be capable of altering it. You can grant read-only permission to access your file in this situation.
When and why should read-only be used?
If you work with complicated Excel spreadsheets that have valuable data and complicated calculations, you can automatically prevent unwanted changes by saving the file’s contents as read-only. This function, which guards against inadvertent alterations or manipulation, is especially helpful when sharing the Excel sheet with customers or colleagues. For private use, read-only access is additionally helpful in maintaining the integrity of completed files.
How to set read-only status for an Excel file:
- Choose Info from the File menu.
- Click on Safeguard Workbook.
- Choose the Read-Only, Always Open option.
Implementing best practices like version control as well as access limitations helps staff develop a security mindset and avoids unintentional file changes and unauthorized access to confidential company data.
How to Password Protect an Excel File
An Excel file that has a password added to it prevents unauthorized users from accessing or altering its contents.
Here’s how to secure an Excel file using a password:
- Navigate to the review tab.
- Choose Protect Workbook among the categories of changes.
- Choose a password, put it in the password field, and click OK.
- Retype the password in the Confirm Password box, then click OK.
Here’s how to modify or delete the password for an Excel file:
- Go to the tab marked “Review.”
- Click on the Safeguard Workbook.
- A box labeled “Unprotect Workbook” will show up if your workbook requires a password.
- To unlock the workbook, enter the password.
- After removing the password, go to the Review tab and click Protect Workbook to create a new password.
Password Protect Excel Sheet From Viewing
You have the option to safeguard individual worksheets in place of the workbook as a whole.
Workbook security as opposed to worksheet security
Workbook protection entails safeguarding the whole Excel document to stop unwanted access and changes. Worksheet protection, on the other hand, enables you to protect particular worksheets inside the workbook by limiting specified operations, such as modifying cells, formatting, or removing data, while keeping other sheets editable.
Here are two quick, straightforward, and efficient ways to easily password-protect the Excel sheet and keep others from viewing it.
#1. Using the Review Tab to Password Protect an Excel Sheet from Viewing
Using this strategy, we will be able to password-protect the Dataset sheet from view by using the Review tab.
- Initially, we will right-click on the Dataset sheet name and select Hide.
- A confirmation screen will then show up. Press OK.
- Next, we’ll select Protect under the Review menu and then click on Protect Sheet.
- A Protect Sheet screen will now show up.
- Next, we’ll fill in the “Password to unprotect sheet” box with a password.
- Press OK. The window to confirm the password will open.
- Enter this password again in the “Reenter password to proceed” box.
- Lastly, we will observe that a warning occurs whenever we click on any of the cells in the Dataset sheet to change. For this reason, a password has been applied to protect the Excel sheet from viewing.
#2. Using the Info option from the File Tab to Protect Sheet from Viewing using Password
Using this strategy, we will password-lock the Excel sheet from viewing by using the Info option.
- We will start by selecting the File tab from the ribbon.
- Next, we’ll choose Info > Protect Workbook > Choose Protect Current Sheet.
- A Protect Sheet screen will now show up.
- Subsequently, a password will be provided in the Password to Unprotect sheet box.
- Press OK. The window to confirm the password will open.
- Enter the password again in the “Reenter password to proceed” box.
- Lastly, we will observe that a warning occurs whenever we click on any of the cells in the Dataset sheet to change. For this reason, a password has been applied to protect the sheet.
Prevent the editing of particular cells in an Excel workbook.
You can safeguard particular data or formulas in your Excel spreadsheet against unintentional or illegal changes by locking the cells. When working on projects together, publishing spreadsheets with others, or making designs or models where some cells need to stay unaltered, locking the cells is a must.
How to make cells in a spreadsheet password-protected:
- Decide which cells you wish to keep safe.
- If you right-click on them, choose Format Cells.
- Select the Locked checkbox under the Protection tab.
- Click OK.
After you password-protect the worksheet, the selected cells will be locked.
How to Protect Excel Workbook From Editing
Not only does editing Excel help you protect your workbook, but it also helps you lock its structure. If you decide to secure your workbook’s structure, unauthorized users are prevented from:
- Unhidden Worksheet Access
- Making any changes, such as changing a sheet’s name, location, visibility, or deletion,
- While they can add charts to already-existing worksheets, they cannot add additional worksheets or chart sheets.
- Copying or transferring sheets to a different workbook
Let’s take a scenario where you made a Workbook for a challenging group project. Your colleagues can still add data to specific Worksheets if you protect the Excel Workbook’s structure from editing; they can’t change the Workbook’s layout, though.
These straightforward techniques can be employed to protect the structure of your Excel Workbook from editing.
- Please proceed to the Review tab.
- To initiate the process, please navigate to the Changes group and proceed to select the Protect Workbook option.
- The structural component is assessed.
- Please select a password, enter it into the designated Password form, and proceed by clicking the OK button.
- Please enter the password again in the Confirm Password field, and then proceed by clicking the OK button.
On a Mac, to password-protect your Excel workbook from editing:
- Choose File > Passwords.
- In the “Password to open” field, type a password.
- Click OK.
The benefits of a password manager
Protecting Excel spreadsheets with passwords is smart. Microsoft cannot help people recover lost passwords. Password managers can help with this. A password manager lets users create, store, and utilize strong passwords for worksheets and workbooks, improving security. Password managers make sharing Excel passwords easy and secure. Shared vaults enable families and teams accomplish this. Item sharing works well for one-time circumstances. For those without password managers, password sharing is available. Use a password manager to secure the document with passwords and addresses after finishing. For those without password managers, password sharing is available. Protect the paper with passwords and addresses in a password manager after finishing.
How to Password Protect an Excel File but Allow Read Only Access?
Ensure that the list reads No modifications (Read only) and select Allow just this kind of edit in the document under Editing limitations. Click on “Yes,” to begin enforcing protection. Enter a password that you can remember in the field that appears, and then input it again to make sure. Passwords are not required.
What Are the Two 2 Methods for Protecting the Password File?
Within the framework of unidirectional encryption, the system alone preserves the encrypted iteration of the user’s password. Access control is a term used to describe the practice of authorizing access to the password file, which can be granted to either a solitary account or a restricted set of accounts.
Can I Password Protect an Excel File Without Opening It?
To encrypt a workbook, choose the Protect Workbook option under the File > Info menu. The menu will display; select Encrypt with Password. Click OK after entering the appropriate password in the Password field of the Encrypt Document window.
Can a Password Protected Excel File Be Opened?
If your Excel spreadsheet is encrypted, you will be prompted to provide a password prior to reading the contents when you double-click on the file. If this is the situation and you don’t have the password, you’ll need to use a password breaker.
How Do I Know if My Excel Is Password Protected?
When a sheet is protected, the ribbon’s Protect Sheet option changes to Unprotect Sheet. Tap the Review tab on the main screen and select Unprotect Sheet under Changes to reveal this option.
What App Can Open Password Protected Excel?
Although there are other programs that promise to disable password encryption from Excel workbooks that are password-protected, PassFab is renowned for being user-friendly and safe. Additionally, Excel files created with any version of the program, including 2019 and Microsoft 365, can be decrypted.
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