How to Lock Cells 🔒in Excel to Protect your Formulas & Only Allow Input where Needed

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Learn how to lock cells in Excel for creating foolproof templates! This tutorial is ideal for those who want to ensure data integrity in shared documents.
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✅ What You'll Learn:
▪️ Setting up cell protection: A guide to using Excel's Review tab for sheet protection.
▪️ Password protection: How to add and remove passwords for extra security.
▪️ Formatting cells for protection: Detailed instructions on selecting and locking cells.
▪️ Customizing cell locking: Techniques for locking only specific cells or ranges.
▪️ Utilizing 'Find and Replace' for efficiency: A unique method to select cells based on color for protection.
▪️ Practical tips: Insights on protecting your formulas while allowing inputs in designated areas.
Ever created this perfect shared Excel template only to come back to a total disaster? Collaborating on shared spreadsheets can be painful. But it doesn't have to be that way! In this video I'll show you how you can lock and unlock any cell, or a whole range of cells, to keep your work protected. This way you'd be able to protect your formula cells and allow people to only input in specific ranges or cells. I'll also show you a cool Excel trick which allows you to multi-select cells based on their color and then lock those cells only.
00:00 How to protect cells in Excel
03:20 How to Multi-Select cells based on Color
05:29 Wrap Up
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#Excel

[@LeilaGharani]

Grab the file I used in the video from here 👉 pages.xelplus.com/lock-unlock-cells-file

[@giyah6038]

Not only did I learn how to lock/unlock cells, but also learned how to select only shaded cells. Another really easy and helpful tutorial. Thank you!

[@zayaneats9930]

Gi Yeh...❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@Jaque12345Jaque]

Same here. Super helpful!!

[@user-qm4dm9gs8o]

خخخهههههههههههههههخههههخهخههههههخخهت

[@wakelingchicken]

Hi Leila My Top Tip if you're doing a lot of work locking / unlocking cells is to put the "Lock Cell" button into the quick access toolbar. It then acts as a visual indicator as to whether the highlighted cell is locked or unlocked and allows you to quickly change the setting without going into the Ctrl-1 formatting dialogue. I hope that's helpful for a few people :) Andy

[@LeilaGharani]

I like that! Thanks for sharing Andy.

[@card1_diy]

That got me confused too. Im gonna practice

[@tiongah7690]

that needs macro right?

[@wakelingchicken]

No@@tiongah7690 , it doesn't need a macro. In the desktop app, above the menu bar, in the title bar top left, you should see the 'quick access toolbar', and on the right of that is a drop down icon that allows you to customise that toolbar. You simply need to add the 'Lock Cell' button from the 'Home Tab'. Maybe Leila will include this tip in a future video for you :)

[@keijo456]

@@wakelingchicken Thank you for the tip!

[@danielcarr2975]

Whilst I knew how to lock cells, I had no clue I could select cells using the find function by colour - what an amazing time saving tip - awesome 👏

[@JayBee-hb2pm]

Everything you post about Excel is so relevant to my job role. I just love how you come up with things that make our lives so much easier Leila. Thank you for sharing yet another great tip

[@TarunSharma-ll8ge]

I make excel calculators a lot and I use this feature but this color coding will save a lot of my time as I used to manually untick the 'locked' for each cell. Thanks for this video.

[@gcecg]

Thanks for the great video. I've been using the lock cells feature for some time. An added bonus is that when you navigate the protected worksheet using the enter key, all the locked cells are automatically skipped. It's much quicker to move just among the cells that are editable. Cheers!

[@DinoDelight]

I use locked cells loads, but always untick the "select lock cell option" that way users can't even select the locked cells this avoids that annoying error pop up. And if you use filters, make sure that option is unticked that way users can use the filter even though the cell will be locked

[@asianseyesRpretty2]

What is lock cells loads?

[@balakumaran75]

Very nice suggestion

[@silviopontesx]

Thank you for teaching us; I watched many of your videos, I admire your sensitivity and the simplicity and fluidity of how you delve into the topic! What a monument to knowledge! Thank you so much!

[@lorikmor]

I can’t like this enough. This is one of the most counterintuitive concepts in Excel. Thanks for breaking it down so simply.

[@broderp]

I hope you are paid very well in some capacity for for your awesome tutorials.....You're methods are to the point, easy to understand and are exactly what I need. Thank you!

[@LeilaGharani]

I appreciate that!

[@roywilson9580]

I totally agree, it took a lot of research to discover how to use the locked check box. That said cell level locking is something that I have frequently used to protect formulas and other critical contents against accidentally being changed.

[@DeltaSanjula]

Working in a rural Australia has many challenges, especially when finding quality learning resources. Subscribing to your channel is like access to the ultimate office encyclopedia. Thank you for unscrambling the chaos that sometimes is excel!!

[@mohammadmosallanejad4912]

This guide is what I was thinking about right now, because I have made a worksheet and plan to share it with other colleagues. Thank you Leila ONCE AGAIN.❤️

[@johniethompson8788]

I have used the lock and unlock function for cells before but this explanation was the best I've seen and definitely helps me. Now I'm going to go change a few things in my current project. 👍👍

[@MarceColucci]

This was brilliant! I've been looking for a way to do this for ages and this explained it so clearly and easily!! thank you Leila.

[@sachinrv1]

Leila you are super amazing. I used to manually select the colored cells I wanted my employees to edit. Never used this FIND FORMAT feature. This is way to handy. Thanks a ton for sharing this trick. I have been following all your videos for couple of years now. You are like "one stop" for advanced Excel needs. Kudos :)

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad I could help, Sachin!

[@oedipamaas8660]

I learned how to lock/unlock cells before. But I forgot. I was definitely doing it the hard way! This mini tutorial should save a lot of time. Thank you Leila! I learn how to solve a lot of excel problems watching your videos. 🤩

[@DssSmyth]

As always, you do a great job in explaining the topic. I'm with you, the whole lock/unlock is a bit confusing but I'm in the know now thanks to you!

[@marianb2274]

This is perfectly timed for something I am creating for work. What a life-saving (and time-saving) tip! Thank you!!

[@TigerTedd]

My top tip for this, instead of the find and replace option, is to use Cell Styles to unlock cells. There’s a cell style called Input. Unfortunately I think MS have dropped the ball slightly on this as it would make sense to have this cell style default as unlocked. But it doesn’t, so you have to right click on it and modify, then tick that you want to include protection in the cell style, and then got to format, and unlock the style in the same way, you can also change its colour here. In this way, when you’re creating your spreadsheet, whenever you come across a cell you know should be unlocked, you can just give it the ‘input’ cell style, rather than making it blue, or yellow or whatever, and it will automatically be unlocked. You can also then use cell styles to quickly change the colour or borders of all your input cells if you need to. I’ve had it many times where I’ve made a big spreadsheet with lots of fairly random input cells, and I’ve lost track of what’s an input cell and what isn’t. And you have to go back through later and unlock them all. Best practice is to highlight then in some colour, even if that’s just default yellow for now. But using this method means you’re highlighting them, unlocking them and leaving the door open to quickly recolour them later if you want to. I just wanted to share that, as I was very pleased with myself when I worked it out. I hope that helps someone.

[@LeilaGharani]

Thanks for the tip!

[@twinkle547]

Hi @Edward Can you know how to lock entire worksheet if it is in unprotected mode with Method not with Event (VBA Code) it will be great help if any body can help me on this Struggling alot and also I am not looking related to Password specifically

[@larwhelan21]

Great tip 👌

[@lyaw8086]

@@twinkle547 k

[@sulemanhassanali]

You are saving my days! Additional learning how to select specific formatting.

[@michaelcorvin25]

Thank you for explaining things in a very logical and easy manner! I love your tutorial videos on EXCEL!

[@suecampanelli311]

Agree, the Locked feature was confusing to understand at first. It’s been a few years since I’ve needed to use it and this tip was refreshing. Also, great tip about find coloured cells! Thanks Leila!

[@LeilaGharani]

Great to hear! Thanks Sue.

[@DennisYeadon]

I have used this feature many times. What I liked about the tutorial is the method your used to select all the cells you needed to unlock. Thanks

[@VishwasKadrolli]

I struggled a lot to ensure the sheet is locked and other dont input values other than cells meant to, but your video makes it so simple, I am gonna use it all through out my work. Thanks for the tip!

[@ivanbork4175]

Use it a lot, normally with the option to only select unlocked cells, but especially the find with format is a cool way to save time I have not seen before, thanks

[@ahumblemuslim3009]

I'm using Excel on daily basis and your lessons are really helpful, thank you miss.

[@RemyCW]

Good explanations. I used it since last century 😊 Sometime, I protect with no password, to give opportunity to people to change the structure if they prefer, for example changing the order of the columns, but having the protection prevent any unintentional change. Of course, it is situation where I don't need to aggregate results after.

[@jayshreebhakta9937]

I knew how to lock and unlock, but learned something new today that you can use Ctrl + F to search the formatting too!! Thanks Leila, you are the best!!

[@pambackal]

You always have something new to surprise me! Search by cell color format is new, yet another very useful tutorial. Thanks a lot...

[@shabirnasir]

Your expertise are great..Thank you for your time and videos

[@mimicat3065]

Aaaaaaww! Gosh.. so simple.. It took me quite a lot of select cells, unlocking and protect/unprotect.. Wow.. you explained it the easiest way.. Super thank you with video.. i love it.. Mabuhay! 🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭 👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@silverlicious2086]

Always a good idea to protect certain cells. Especially those that have complex formulas. Have a nice day Leila.

[@lukmanayodeji9563]

You are really amazing @Leila. I will always be glued to your channel. Triple thump up for you my Mentor. Thanks for your Tutorials. Alhamdulillah, they had really transformed me to Pro Excel User.

[@Festus171]

Oh my goodness! I can't even calculate the amount of time I have killed doing this the hard way. That is a wonderful tip. I've been looking for a faster way to do this very task for a long time. Thanks so much for sharing!

[@ahmedrifayi8257]

Yes , I know many formulas in excel but this protection was confusing like you mentioned but you cleared it now Thanks 😊

[@fungkiem]

Thank you! The LOCKED did confuse me before I watched your video. In the past, I never was able to lock cells because I thought the check mark should work. With your method, everything works well now. Thanks!

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad I could help!

[@Michael_NV]

I think that this is a perfect explanation. Thank you. I always wanted to protect just few cells instead of complete sheet, but I never knew how. Till now. 🙂

[@michaelstamos5510]

Leila - you are such a champion - thank you for your amazing guidance

[@reedschmelzle3710]

Insanely Professional Video! Amazing clarity of information and easy to follow along. I only watched this video once to learn this function. Thank you

[@unnikrishnansanthosh]

Thanks a lot Leila, i have tried few times to do the same and as you said got confused with lock cells option. This tutorial clarified it

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad it was helpful!

[@unkchaos2007]

I just learned how to select shaded fields, that's pretty cool. I did learn about the lock cells and lock worksheet years prior on my own. I use it sparingly but it is mainly for shared files. It also does have it's limitations. If it's for just data entry, excellent! Includes copy pasting from other excel documents, then like on of the commenters on here says about it, it can relock cell or if you choose to not allow formatting, may not paste at all. It is great so far for just data entry, just be careful of copy/pasting.

[@dgjanes917]

If you save as a macro enabled workbook you gain access to the get.cell formula (no vba required). You can use that to check what the current format of the cell is and compare it against what you expect it to be. What I do is, if the format has changed it gives the user an error message in the calculated cells. All the calculated cells will say "PASTE ERROR" instead of the expected calculations. That way they know right away that they pasted in to a cell when they shouldn't have and can just hit undo and re-input the value without impacting the formatting.

[@mohammednomanumeruddeen7165]

You always simplify stuff. Love it

[@jonminer9891]

Hi, Leila. It was a great lesson. Thanks for sharing! Stay healthy!

[@nairkrishnadas]

Hi Leila, Each of your tips is fantastic. I always learn something new whenever I watch your videos. Thanks a lot

[@suhaibkhan322]

Lela, I did it many times and worked, but I did not know how had done 👍😀 but now I really appreciate you and understand...

[@jeffrothman2833]

Excellent! This has confused me for years but you made the process crystal clear. Very well presented.

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad you liked it!

[@JeffreyJeffersonUK]

You have saved me so much time and effort with your videos. Thank you so much. (Also your courses are brilliant!)

[@daitan963]

whenever i need help in excel your tutorial is the best to option...thank you!

[@Bashir_Kano]

Yes. This is super helpful. Thank you so much Leila.

[@donaldmcintosh6545]

Hi Leila - Great tip, thanks. It has always been one of my bug-bears when handing out excel files to my customers.

[@notreallyhere1136]

Perfect timing, this is next on my to do list for a project at work, thank you

[@lindalariz-me261]

Great video. Right to the point. Thank you so much!! Exactly what I needed.

[@TP014563]

I absolutely agree with you, it still is confusing and sometimes different to use, not mentioning limited options they offer. Changes to locking cells or unlocking them are long overdue MS, if you guys are reading this, please make an update and change it. Great video by the way!

[@patweyandt1237]

You are the BEST!! Your videos and tutorials are so easy to follow and understand. Thank you.

[@dekebell3307]

You're an amazing resource, thanks so much for sharing! I ALWAYS learn more than just the lesson you're teaching.

[@Cracktune]

in college I needed a 100 cs class and it covered excel... I hardly learned anything in that class and got the wrong impression of Excel... Your vids have not only changed my opinion but pushed me further than that class ever could. TLDR: thanks

[@samrathna6885]

Hi Leila I had the same question about tick ✅ in lock and you’ve clarified it very well. Thanks heaps. You’re awesome 👏🏻

[@LeilaGharani]

You’re welcome 😊

[@baskarm9963]

I was really looking for this Leila. Thank you😊

[@Ali_F_Salem]

quick and simple explanation, thank you.

[@user-lv4wx9tx1y]

Thanks-- this was really clear and helpful. You're a great teacher.

[@lisay5302]

Thank you for explaining this perfectly!

[@JeremyMcMahan]

I too, have found this confusing. Thank you for the understandable description and examples!

[@windsorlewis3344]

This is amazing and will be so helpful at work tomorrow. Thank you so much!

[@spoondi1]

I normally use to select cells & unlock but the ctrl +F & replace option is very useful tip. Thanks

[@vernacularbarnarchitecture]

Thank you so much! I was just playing around with the lock features to no avail on Wednesday and then just decided not to share my sheet at all. With this video, I’m equipped to go back to the drawing board.

[@rlibby404]

I abandoned hope for good Excel tutorials many years ago, they are usually the most terrible and unreliable videos out there, but you, you really did it.

[@paullessard4549]

Exactly the info i was looking for! thank you!

[@srikanth7368]

Amazing video, Mam. Completely cleared my doubts on how to protect a sheet. Thank you, Mam.

[@silvanodemetrio407]

What a top tip! I just learned how to select the colored cells. Great

[@Skans-Gustav]

Very nicely presented. Thank you. I liked the formatting by colour.

[@mamamtl]

Hi. I actually already knew about locking cells, but I just wanted to thank you for the very informative videos. I adore excel and am quickly becoming the specialist at my job. You have my ideal job. I absolutely adore Excel and if I could do it all day I would!

[@LeilaGharani]

You are so welcome!

[@MrSupernova111]

Amazing! I always learn something new in your videos! Cheers!

[@vincentcollin6490]

We can add that when protecting the sheet, we can uncheck the box "Select locked cells". And therefore leave only the unlocked cells accessible.😉 Thank you for this lesson.

[@jessicaarend217]

This is the most helpful video I have found on this topic. Thank you so very much!

[@siyabulelatshali1012]

I literally just googled this. Your video's are always relevant. Thank you.

[@LeilaGharani]

Happy to help!

[@ThomTydeman]

Your videos are terrific. Your content is always clear and concise, and you always impart additional tips and tricks that delight your subscribers.

[@TheAjukumar]

Locking of cells finally unlocked :) Thanks a lot Leila.

[@thushanthaperera5146]

I learnt a new method of locking selected cells easily and fast with this video. I knew how to lock n unlock but was not fast enough to do it with a selected cells.

[@arvinndssinha3390]

Great Help. Thank you, Leila.

[@mattschoular8844]

Thanks Leila. The Find and Replace trick is a great idea. I use Locked Cells /Protect Sheet / Protect Workbook for muti user templates often. Employee Expense forms, Customer Credit Apps etc...

[@LeilaGharani]

👍

[@patrickrolland7496]

Thanks so much for that! I had exactly the same confusion you had in the beginning with the 'lock' definition

[@MarissaCatanghal]

You explain things well. Thank you.

[@hardhik28]

Love the explanation. Thank you

[@user-ut4tx3hm4u]

Thank you for making it super easy to follow. I fell inspired to and interactive chart now.

[@campopaulana]

Amazing!!! thank you so much. It was very confusing to get the right locks before this video.

[@ioannisstagonis8028]

You saved my day! Excellent work!🙂

[@diongumbs8984]

Great tutorial: Short, concise and understanding.

[@deepakchander3150]

Got what I was looking for. Thanks a lot.

[@UA-js9fn]

Many thanks for your efforts and supports

[@miguelplg19]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Really appreciate the help.

[@chimo2dax]

Thank you, again, for your tips. Youre a life saver

[@jtadena21]

Such a big help. Thank you so much for this.

[@kishangzp]

very helpful tips... I used to be thiniking I know so much in excel and power bi... but now I have realised ... there are lots of things that I don't know, and there will be lots of things that I will never know... :)

[@nickvandernet]

Thank you. Very helpful and concise.

[@julitonavarro470]

Thank you Leila for another informative lesson

[@chintanjoshi326]

Just the hack i was looking for.. thanks a lot for showing this tool!

[@mcd22630]

Your timing is impeccable, I will be using these techniques later today.

[@LeilaGharani]

Perfect!

[@jillzueck1602]

Thank you soooo much! Amazing info!