Sometimes the data in your workbooks contain important information that you may not want others to edit or delete. The following articles explain how to protect your Excel files from that and more with Excel's protection features.

Tips, Tricks, and Answers

The following articles are available for the 'Workbook Protection' topic. Click the article''s title (shown in bold) to see the associated article.

   Always Opening a Workbook that is Editable
When you send a workbook to a coworker, it can be bothersome if that person has problems using what you created. There is a rhyme and reason behind this, however, as discussed in this tip.

   Cannot Add Worksheets to a Workbook
If you cannot add a worksheet to your workbook, it could be because the workbook is protected. This tip shows how to figure out if that is the case and, if so, how to unprotect the workbook.

   Changing a Workbook Password
Excel allows you to apply protection to your workbooks. If you want to later change the passwords associated with that protection, all you need to do is to follow the steps outlined in this tip.

   Limiting Who Can Delete Data
Excel allows you to protect your worksheet data in several different ways. Unfortunately, it doesn't allow you to protect the data for some people but not for others. There are some ways you can approach a solution to such a problem, as described in this tip.

   Locking Worksheet Tab Order
When you develop a workbook for others to use, you may want to make sure that those users cannot change the order in which worksheets appear in the workbook. This tip shows how easy it is to lock down the order of worksheets.

   Protecting a Workbook from Opening in Other Programs
When working with sensitive information, you always need to be concerned that your data doesn't fall into unwanted hands. With the number of programs growing that can actually open Excel workbooks, the problem becomes even more critical.

   Protecting an Entire Folder of Workbooks
Want to protect the Excel information stored in a particular folder on your system? There are a number of ways you can approach the task, as described in this tip.

   Protecting an Entire Workbook
Want to stop other people from making unauthorized changes to your workbook? Excel provides a way that you can protect the workbook, as described in this tip.

   Removing Protection from a Protected Workbook
Excel provides built-in capabilities to protect your workbook files. If you apply these capabilities, it is possible that at some future date you may want to remove them. This tip focuses on how to remove protection from a protected workbook file when you already know how to open it.

   Saving a Workbook Using Passwords
If you want to protect your workbook so that others cannot open or change the information it contains, an easy way to accomplish the task is by setting a password for the workbook file. This tip examines the way you can set passwords and the protection that they offer.

   Using Strong Workbook Protection
Need to protect the data in your workbook so that others can't get at it? Here are some ideas on how you can approach the problem.

   Visually Showing a Protection Status
Need to know if a worksheet or workbook is currently protected? Excel provides some tell-tale signs, but here are some ways you can know for sure.