Last updated July 2026. To protect a sheet in Excel, go to Review and click Protect Sheet, pick which actions people are still allowed to take, and optionally set a password. Every cell is marked Locked by default, and that setting does nothing until protection is switched on, so the real work happens before you click: select the cells people should be able to type in, press Ctrl+1, open the Protection tab, and clear the Locked box. Protect the sheet afterwards and only those cells stay editable.
That order catches almost everyone the first time. Protect the sheet without unlocking anything and the whole tab becomes read only, including the input cells you built it for. This guide covers protecting the right cells, the allowed action list, filtering and sorting on a protected sheet, passwords and how to remove them, and the difference between protecting a sheet, a workbook, and a file. It is the last step worth taking on a template built from converted data, once the numbers are clean and the formulas are settled.
How do I protect a sheet in Excel?
Open the Review tab, click Protect Sheet, tick the actions you want to allow, type a password if you want one, and click OK. Protection takes effect immediately: locked cells refuse edits and show a message explaining the sheet is protected. To turn it off, click Unprotect Sheet on the same tab and enter the password if one was set.
Two things about the password. It is optional, and without one anyone can unprotect the sheet in two clicks, which is fine when the goal is preventing accidents rather than stopping people. And Microsoft states clearly that a forgotten password cannot be retrieved, so store it somewhere you will still have it next quarter.
How do I lock only certain cells in Excel?
Unlock the cells you want editable first, then protect the sheet. Select the input range, press Ctrl+1, go to the Protection tab, and uncheck Locked. Click OK, then Review and Protect Sheet. Everything you left locked is now read only and the unlocked cells still accept typing.
For a sheet where most cells should be editable and only a few formulas need protecting, do it the other way round: select all cells with Ctrl+A, uncheck Locked, then select just the formula cells, check Locked again, and protect. A quick way to find every formula on the sheet is Home > Find & Select > Go To Special > Formulas, which selects them all at once so you can lock them in one pass.
| Goal | Do this |
|---|---|
| Whole sheet read only | Review > Protect Sheet, change nothing else |
| Only input cells editable | Unlock the inputs via Ctrl+1, then protect |
| Only formulas protected | Unlock everything, relock formulas via Go To Special, then protect |
| Hide the formulas as well | Tick Hidden on the Protection tab before protecting |
| Different rules for different ranges | Review > Allow Edit Ranges, then protect |
The Hidden checkbox is the one people miss. It does not hide the value, it hides the formula from the formula bar once the sheet is protected, so a reviewer sees the result but not how you got there. Useful for a rate card or a pricing model you send outside the company.
What can people still do on a protected sheet?
Whatever you tick in the Protect Sheet dialog. The list includes selecting locked and unlocked cells, formatting cells, columns, and rows, inserting or deleting rows and columns, inserting hyperlinks, sorting, using AutoFilter, editing PivotTable reports, and editing objects and scenarios. Only the first two are ticked by default, so a plain protected sheet allows selection and nothing else.
Be generous with formatting and column width if the sheet is going to be used daily. Being unable to widen a column to read a truncated description is the kind of friction that makes people copy your workbook into an unprotected one, which defeats the whole exercise.
How do I allow filtering and sorting on a protected sheet?
Turn AutoFilter on before you protect, then tick Use AutoFilter in the Protect Sheet dialog. Microsoft's guidance is explicit that both AutoFilter and sorting need to be set up beforehand: once the sheet is protected, users cannot apply or remove AutoFilter, and they cannot sort a range that contains locked cells regardless of what you ticked.
That last part is the catch nobody expects. Ticking Sort does not let people sort protected data, it only lets them sort ranges that are entirely unlocked. So on a review sheet built from converted records, add the filter dropdowns first, allow AutoFilter, and accept that reordering rows is not on the table. Filtering is usually what people actually need anyway, and a live SUBTOTAL formula above the header keeps the visible total correct as they filter.
How do I unprotect a sheet in Excel?
Click Review > Unprotect Sheet. If a password was set, type it. If it was not, protection comes off straight away. To change what is allowed, unprotect, adjust the locked cells or the allowed action list, and protect again.
If you have forgotten the password on your own file, Microsoft cannot recover it and neither can support. Realistically your options are an earlier copy of the workbook, a colleague who has the password, or rebuilding the sheet by copying the data into a new file. Treat a protection password like any other credential and record it when you set it.
Protect Sheet vs Protect Workbook vs encrypting the file
Three different controls, often confused because they live near each other in the interface.
| Feature | Where | What it stops |
|---|---|---|
| Protect Sheet | Review tab | Editing cells, and whatever actions you did not allow |
| Protect Workbook | Review tab | Adding, deleting, renaming, moving, or hiding sheets |
| Encrypt with Password | File > Info > Protect Workbook | Opening the file at all without the password |
| Mark as Final | File > Info > Protect Workbook | Nothing, it is a read only suggestion |
Protect Workbook is what stops someone deleting the tab your formulas point at, which is a far more damaging accident than a mistyped cell. If you are distributing a template, use both: workbook protection for the structure and sheet protection for the cells. Mark as Final is only a nudge, and any recipient can click Edit Anyway.
Is sheet protection actually secure?
Treat it as a guardrail, not security. Sheet and workbook protection are designed to prevent mistakes, and the password on them is widely known to be removable with commonly available tools. Only file level encryption, the Encrypt with Password option, genuinely restricts access to the contents.
So the rule of thumb is simple. Confidential data belongs in an encrypted file, or better, out of a circulated spreadsheet entirely. Sheet protection is for keeping a working template intact: stopping a colleague from typing over a formula, from deleting the lookup range, or from pasting a block of values into the wrong columns. Where real controls and an audit trail are required, that belongs in a system built to track them rather than in a workbook password.
Protecting a workbook built from converted data
Templates built on converted documents are exactly the kind that need this. You convert a monthly statement or report, paste the rows into the data tab, and a set of formulas turns it into the summary everyone reads. The formulas are the fragile part: one pasted block in the wrong place and the totals are wrong in a way nobody notices for a month.
A sensible setup is three layers. Leave the raw data tab unprotected, since new data lands there every cycle. Protect the calculation and summary tabs so the formulas cannot be overwritten, ticking Format cells and Use AutoFilter so the sheet stays usable. Then protect the workbook structure so nobody deletes or reorders the tabs the formulas depend on.
Do the cleanup before you lock anything. Numbers that came out of a PDF as text, stray spaces, and blank rows all need fixing while the sheet is still open for edits, and the post conversion cleanup guide runs through that sequence in order. Then set your drop down lists on the input columns so categories stay consistent, and protect last. If you are still building the intake step, the PDF to Excel converter is what turns the source document into the rows this whole template depends on.
Can I protect a sheet but still let people use a drop down list?
Yes, and it works as long as the cells holding the dropdowns are unlocked before you protect. Data validation lives on the cell, so an unlocked cell keeps its dropdown and its rule while the sheet is protected. That combination is the reason protected templates work well: people can only type in the cells you chose, and in those cells they can only pick from your list.
One detail to check. If the list source sits on another sheet, protect that sheet too, or someone editing the source list will change every dropdown in the workbook. Hiding the list sheet and then protecting the workbook structure keeps it out of reach without breaking the validation rules that point at it.