How to lock cells in Excel – Complete Guide

Other than the read-only, which prevents editing, typing, commands, and proofing marks accidentally, another protective feature that excel has is the locking of cells. This feature in the excel spreadsheet prevents the change of any data or formulas hosted in these cells that are locked. The user who locked cells can unlock them if there is a need for changes to be made. This also prevents making changes in the locked cells unnecessarily. It also can incorporate the use of the password to allow any changes that are made in the selected cell. Check more posts on basicexcel

The Follow steps guide to lock cells in a worksheet:

Locking specific Excel cells

1. Select the cell to range you want to be locked.

2. On the Home tab, click on the " CELLS group" and click the small arrow to open the "Format Cells" window.

Or alternatively

Right-click and a mini menu will display and go to the format cell option.

You may also opt for the shortcut keys "ctrl+ shift+ f."

3. After having the format cell pop-up, on the "protection tab," click the "locked" option, then "OK."

4. On the top menu, go to review; in the Changes group, you may select either Protect Sheet or Protect Workbook and reapply to protect.

Locking cells using Kutool

Another way you will be able to lock cells is through the use of tools. Kutools for Excel is a tool that enables you to lock and unlock cells with just a single click.

This tool can be downloaded online. It contains 300 handy tools and a 30-day free trial. You can get it from the link  Download From this Link

After a successful download, an extensive menu will be added having the kutool features

1. Click the Kutools Plus then the worksheet design

2. A menu will be added to the design menu.

3. Select lock cells from the dialog box

4. Lock the cells after selecting ranges and cells that need to be locked. Click on the design before locking them.

Using kutool encrypting option to lock Excel cells

Apart from the normal lock in Kutool, it also has another feature called Encrypt Cells utility that can help you quickly lock and protect selected cells easily.

This is how you go about it:

1. Select the cells to range that you want to be locked and protected,

2. click the "Kutools Plus," then "Encrypt Cells."

This will give the encrypt cells dialog box.

3. Type and reconfirm the password in the password box, select one of the mask types, and then click OK to accept changes.

All the selected cells will be encrypted.

Locking all the Excel cells

1. Start by making a selection of all the cells.

2. Format all the cells after right-clicking. Alternatively, you can use (CTRL+1) for easier formatting of cells.

3. Confirm that all cells are locked by default in the Protection tab.

4. Finalize by clicking OK.