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

[@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!!

[@فخامتيتكفيني-ض8ق]

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 👏

[@lorikmor]

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

[@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.

[@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!

[@TheLikkebaard]

Best video I saw ever explaining a(nother) confusing aspect of Excel, your explanation makes it so easy to follow!!

[@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

[@radhaganesan3336]

Best practice would be 1) Unlock the entire sheet (Ctrl +1) -> protection-> unlock 2) Select the columns or cells which you wanted to lock (Ctrl +1) -> protection-> lock 3) Protect sheet now (would suggest to always use a password for security) This works!!

[@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

[@siyabulelatshali1012]

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

[@LeilaGharani]

Happy to help!

[@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.

[@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!

[@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!!

[@sulemanhassanali]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@michaelcorvin25]

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

[@mcd22630]

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

[@LeilaGharani]

Perfect!

[@keijo456]

Wow! This is just what I need. Perfect timing! I didn't know about find and replace works with cell formats. Great video as always Leila.

[@LeilaGharani]

You're very welcome!

[@patihrizal9880]

Yeah what a timing

[@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.

[@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

[@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!

[@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!

[@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.

[@pambackal]

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

[@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.

[@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!!

[@jeffrothman2833]

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

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad you liked it!

[@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!

[@colormile-vid8888]

OMG Leila, I was using this lock/unlock yesterday and finally understood it! It took me awhile to truly get it. However I ran into an issue with shapes objects in my macro. How do I unprotect it so it works. Thanks again and as always I learn everyday from your video tutorials.

[@DinoDelight]

Prob a little to late, but at the start of the macro, un protect it then at the end of the macro re- protect it ActiveSheet.Protect ActiveSheet.Unprotect

[@ThomTydeman]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@laurituttle4718]

So, I did have some issues. I had to format the cells BEFORE I locked them. Selecting cells that you want to be locked, right click - format cells - lock (or unlock cells or block of cells). When all of your cells are formatted the way you want, THEN protect the sheet. This will have the cells you want locked, locked... and the ones you want unlocked, unlocked (or where ONLY cells can be adjustable)! Thanks for the tutorial!

[@Whiskey.T.Foxtrot]

Thanks! My problem with locking is with providing clients with a complex spreadsheet where they need to add or delete rows of data in a table. With locking enabled they can't do that. With locking disabled they invariably overwrite a formula and crush the model.

[@nairkrishnadas]

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

[@michaelmwakawele7147]

I have learnt a lot from your presentations. Your explanations are usually clear and easy to follow. However, sometimes I have questions. Do you mind having a one on one question and answer?

[@RussellWard]

Nicely done! You have a teaching gift - making the complex simple. Perhaps you would consider presenting the process a little slower in your next video as I am an Excel rookie.

[@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!

[@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!

[@donaldmcintosh6545]

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

[@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.

[@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

[@chh8860]

I've used 'Find & Replace' many times ... but not 'Locking' cells. Your lesson is quite timely (again). Your presentation is perfect ... 👍... thank you ... thank you ... thank you.

[@LeilaGharani]

Awesome, thank you!

[@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. 🤩

[@juliad368]

Really clear explanations thank you ! Watched several other videos before yours and could not understand the explanations.

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad it helped!

[@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! 🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭 👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@bhanubethala54]

Selected colour cells was really nice shortcut, it's very good to learn new things from you Ma'am. Thank a lot 🙏

[@LeilaGharani]

My pleasure 😊

[@spoondi1]

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

[@Freemarkets1236]

I did know about the lock/unlock feature but no the find by format and being able to select all. Great new tip. Thanks

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad you found something useful.

[@ahumblemuslim3009]

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

[@ScottLititz]

#facepalm. Being in finance, I regularly use lock/unlock. But I had forgotten about Find using formats. With all the powerful things Excel has, it's good to be reintroduced to the oldies. Thank you Leila.

[@LeilaGharani]

My pleasure :)

[@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... :)

[@rajanbabubhagavatham1452]

Madam ! Your videos on excel are fantastic and easily understandable. A good KZbinr on Excel. Could you please explain how to lock rows and columns after hiding them not to open by others.

[@patweyandt1237]

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

[@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...

[@abdulsaidmkamara7305]

I Think the text below the locked function is what add to the confusion of this particular function of excel.Great Stuff Leila !!

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad you like it!

[@dekebell3307]

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

[@BikesarelifeIndia]

Finally I have learned to use locking/protecting cells. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. 👍🏻

[@LeilaGharani]

You’re welcome 😊

[@michaelstamos5510]

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

[@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

[@davidstonebarger9330]

I'd been reading the Excel help pages but was still confused until I watched this. Thanks so much!

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad it was helpful.

[@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!

[@augusto727]

Fantastic! Thank you for your help. I was bedeviled by erasing my formulas in cells that I am not supposed to touch. Thank you so much.

[@tomwelt1825]

I love the 'Find' the Fill color to select applicable cells.

[@campopaulana]

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

[@marianb2274]

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

[@mcmielnik]

I knew about locked cells, but by chance I've learn about "how to find coloured cells!" 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 😊

[@nataliameyer4947]

Agreed with you that locking & unlocking a bit confusing . Nevermind , many thanks for simplifying it for me

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad it helped

[@daitan963]

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

[@dilleshragolu8887]

You just read my mind.... Thanks ❤️

[@LeilaGharani]

My pleasure 😊

[@humansizedaperture]

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.

[@davidfriesen9606]

Wow thank you so much for this explanation you saved me. May God bless you. Take care

[@patrickrolland7496]

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

[@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!

[@ahmedrifayi8257]

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

[@ambarilhamchannel]

A great sharing, you are not only tell us how to protect cell but also give us short cut menu to use that

[@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!

[@tanis2162]

I found Excel's descriptions for these functions totally confusing. Thanks to your tutorial I understand now, what I need to do at my work!

[@AngelEstebanVlog]

You are the best! I couldn't figure that out today, and you solved my problem in an instant : )

[@LeilaGharani]

Happy to help, Angel!

[@antoinettehall6645]

Perfect!!! You answered my EXACT questions when I needed to create a timesheet template. Thank you for sharing. 👍🏾💪🏾👏🏾😁

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad it was helpful!

[@sodbuster4411]

Great video as always. I make a cell style that is a certain fill color and format it to NOT be locked. That way if I want to change the fill color, I just modify the cell style.

[@mbahdjojo]

I dont know my problem is just simple like that ... Thanks Leila, you are the best

[@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. 🙂

[@jumpshot6924]

you're such an amazing teacher. kudos you deserve a billion subscriber

[@LeilaGharani]

Thank you! 😃

[@JeremyMcMahan]

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

[@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]

👍

[@jessicaarend217]

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

[@mohammedhassan2808]

Yeah, it was totally confusing by MS Excel, You done it easy for us through your finding. Appreciate, keep on going

[@sueblakey1858]

This was of great help to me in creating a quiz and locking certain cells, thank you.

[@notreallyhere1136]

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

[@jonminer9891]

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

[@chrism9037]

This is great Leila. I have sometimes found this confusing in the past, very helpful!

[@LeilaGharani]

Thanks, Chris!

[@UNIVFranco]

Your videos have helped me so much at my work, thank you!

[@LeilaGharani]

You are so welcome!

[@kroyle5328]

Didn't know you could select formatted cells, that will save me loss of time. Thanks great video.