How to Lock Cells in Excel

You want other people to fill in a few cells without touching the formulas around them. Every cell in Excel is already marked Locked, but that setting does nothing until the sheet is protected. The job is to unlock the cells that should stay editable, then turn on protection.

Select the cells that should stay editable

Click the first input cell, then hold Ctrl (Command on a Mac) and click each of the others. Whole rows or columns can be selected by clicking their headers.

Unlock those cells

Press Ctrl + 1 (Command + 1 on a Mac) to open Format Cells. Open the Protection tab, clear the Locked checkbox, and click OK. Nothing changes on screen yet. The same toggle is also under Home, Format, Lock Cell.

Protect the sheet

Go to Review, Protect Sheet. Type a password if you want one, or leave it blank to protect without a password. In the list below, tick what users are still allowed to do. The defaults let them select locked and unlocked cells but not change them. Click OK and retype the password if you set one.

Test it

Type into a cell you left locked. Excel shows a message saying the cell is protected. Type into one of the unlocked cells and the entry goes in. Press Tab to move between unlocked cells only.

Unprotect to make changes

Go to Review, Unprotect Sheet and enter the password. Edit the sheet, then protect it again. Protection is per sheet, so each sheet in the workbook is done separately.

If the password is lost. Excel has no recovery option. Keep a copy somewhere safe, or protect without a password when the goal is only to stop accidental edits.

If the data itself is confidential. Sheet protection stops edits, not reading. Anyone can open the file and copy the values. To require a password to open the file, use File, Info, Protect Workbook, Encrypt with Password. To hide a formula from the formula bar on a protected sheet, tick Hidden next to Locked on the Protection tab before protecting.