How to put a password on an excel file. Setting a password for files in Microsoft Excel. How to set a password to change an Excel document

The password protecting the Excel workbook (at the file level) controls access in two ways: it allows the user to log in, and it allows the user to save changes. Before we discuss Excel's password protection feature, let's clarify what we mean by protection.

Although the terms "security" and "protection" are usually used interchangeably, functionally in Excel, they are not the same thing. Security allows you to choose who can access your data. Protection limits users who can only view, but not make changes. Security is access, protection is maintaining integrity.

To assign a password to an Excel file, follow these steps:

Step 3. In the dialog box that appears, you can set two passwords: one to open the workbook and one to change the workbook. Advanced options allow you to set encryption options for added security.

Step 4. Enter one or both passwords and click OK.

Step 5. Confirm each password and click OK.

On a note! to open the book is self-explanatory. If the user does not know the password, he or she cannot open the file. Remember this password only keeps users away. A user who knows this password has access to all data and can change the data once.

By assigning a second password, you can allow users to open the workbook and view the data, but not actually allow the workbook to change. A user who knows this password can view and change the data, as well as save changes to the workbook.

A user who does not know the password can view the data, but it is read-only. This user can still change the data, but the password protected workbook will not allow the user to save changes. This user simply cannot save changes to the protected workbook. However, the user can enter a new name and create a new book.

Video - Password Protect Microsoft Excel File

Sheet-level security

You can protect not only the entire file or book, but also individual sheets of the document. It's just as easy to do, see the screenshots below.

Step 1. In the "Review" section, select the level of protection you need.

Step 2. Enter the password, choosing the type of protection you need.

Click on the "OK" button. From now on, the document or its component parts will be safe, no one will be able to edit them. This does not mean that other people will not be able to access them.

Password encryption

Beyond protection Microsoft Excel allows you to encrypt a file with a separate password. This process will be irreversible if you forget your password. In this case, you will never be able to access them. Save your password in a place inaccessible to others, do not forget it.

Setting external password for Excel file

In addition to the internal password, you can configure additional protection using special programs for hiding, password protection and encryption. Most of them are free and very easy to use. Below, in the table, are the most popular programs to help protect your Excel files.

Video - Protecting Cells and Sheets in Microsoft Excel

On a note

There are three important things to keep in mind before starting to password protect all of your books:

1. Anyone with a password to modify a workbook can also remove the password protection! Use this particular option wisely.
2. Regular users can use the password cracking program. Your best protection against this type of forgery (or theft) is to assign a very long password of random characters. This will not protect against hacking by specialized software 100%, but it will slow it down. This delay can cause a potential attacker to postpone work on it.
3. If you have forgotten your password and cannot enter your book and make changes, you yourself can purchase software for cracking passwords.

Excel password protection is a great feature, and thankfully it's easy to implement. Don't confuse security and safety, don't rely only on an internal password. There are many different ways encryption provided by third-party software.

It is worth touching on such an important question: how to password protect an Excel file. The presented tool is part of Microsoft Office... Excel allows you to create tables of various levels of complexity, apply formulas, change the design. To date, all versions of the program support password setting.

detailed instructions

The description of the process can be divided into several stages. Excel-materials can be password-protected using * .xls files, as well as any other Microsoft documents Office, including Word and Access. To complete the procedure, you need to do the following:

1. At the end of the process, click the "File" item. It is located in the menu at the top of the Microsoft Excel window.
2. When the list appears, you need to go to the "Save as" section. To do this, click on it with the left mouse button.
3. In the file save window, find the "Service" menu and press the inverted triangle.
4. After that, the function “ Common parameters", Which must be applied.

Password setting

Now you should go to the main steps to password protect the Excel file. When the "General parameters" section appears, you will need to enter a password that will allow you to enter the document, as well as edit it if necessary. When you enable Read Only, the toolbar is disabled by default when you set a password. If the document is protected only for its launch, the input request arises constantly at the moment the table is opened. In order to use it, as well as edit its data, you need to know the secret combination.

To open a password-protected Excel file, provided that the protection is set to change the material, the launch is carried out as standard, without prompting. Difficulties arise when new data is entered into the table, as well as when trying to save a document. As a result, the user will be required to enter a secret combination. Setting both types of passwords involves double entry when opening and closing a file.

It is worth noting that you can set different passwords for opening and editing material. Now you need to go back to the setup. After the password is created, you need to click "OK", which is in the "General parameters". In the explorer, you need to enter the name of the file, save it using the appropriate function.

Removing a password It is also worth touching on the issue of disabling the installed protection in Excel. To solve such a problem, it is not required additional program... The app has built-in tools to do these things. First, you need to start Excel, and also open the file that you want to get rid of the password. Then you need to use the "File" menu. In it you need to specify "Save as" and the "Service" menu.

After that, you should go to the "General parameters". To do this, you need to double-click on the asterisks located in the password line. Then the Del button is used to perform the required actions. The correctness of the operation is confirmed with the "OK" key. After that, you need to click "Save", and then the "Yes" button, which will open in a new window. After completing these simple steps, the password in Excel will be removed.

When using a sheet, similar operations are carried out. You need to open the "Tools" menu, then use the "Unprotect" command. To undo the actions, you will need to enter the previously set password.

Using the methods presented above, you can password-protect the Excel file, as well as remove protection from the document.

Most users have information that they would not like to share with others. Moreover, they try to hide it for everyone to read. possible ways... In this article, we will look at how to put a password on an Excel file. In fact, there is nothing difficult here. There are several ways to do this, and we will analyze each of them.

In the modern Excel editor (2007, 2010, 2013, 2016), you can set a security key for both opening the file and editing it. That is, in one case, an outsider will not be able to do anything (even see the content), and in the other, he will only have access to reading information.

Locking a document

For this purpose, you need to follow these steps.

1. Open your document. Click on the "File" menu item.

1. Then go to the "Save As" section.

1. Then click on the "Browse" icon.

1. In the window that appears, follow these steps:
   • Please select desired directory to save the document.
   • Specify the desired file name.
   • Click on the "Tools" menu.

1. Then click on the item "General parameters".

1. Immediately after that, a small window will appear in which you can specify the key for both opening and changing the file:

1. Enter something in the first field and click on "OK".

1. After that, you will be asked to confirm the previously specified text. At the same time, they will warn that there is no way by which you can find out forgotten key so it is a good idea to make a list of your frequently used combinations and the documents they correspond to.

1. Click on "OK" to confirm.

1. In order to save the document, you need to click on the corresponding button.

1. Close this file.

1. Try opening it again. You will be asked to enter the password you specified earlier.

1. To continue working with the document, you need to click on "OK".

1. Only after these actions will this Excel file become available for work.

By using this method, you completely protect your file from unauthorized persons. But there are times when it is necessary to show the content, but at the same time prohibit editing.

To do this, you need to do the following.

1. We repeat the steps described above, but this time we enter the password in the second field. To continue, click on the "OK" button.

1. We confirm the security key and click on "OK".

1. To save, click on the corresponding button.

1. We close the document.

1. Reopen it. As a result, you will see the following window.

1. If a stranger (or you, but have forgotten the code word) does not know the key, then he will have to open the file for reading only. To do this, you need to click on the appropriate button.

1. After opening the document, you will see that the title says Read Only. At the same time, you can easily make your own changes.

1. Now press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + S (save the document). As a result, you will see next message about the error.

This means that you can edit the document, but you cannot save it with the same name.

Locking sheets

Sometimes there are times when you need to prohibit something specific. For example, editing cells, running vba macros or something else, but at the same time keeping all other functions. In this case, the protection of a specific sheet, and not the entire document as a whole, will help.

To do this, follow these steps.

1. Go to the Review tab. Click on the "Protect Sheet" button.

1. Immediately after that, a window will appear in which you will need to indicate (uncheck) what exactly you want to prohibit. By default, only the selection of cells is allowed, but if you wish, you can remove this too.

1. In addition, you can allow:
   • cell formatting;
   • column formatting;
   • string formatting;
   • inserting columns;
   • inserting rows;
   • inserting hyperlinks;
   • deleting columns;
   • deleting lines;
   • sorting;
   • using an autofilter;
   • use a pivot table and pivot chart;
   • changing objects;
   • changing scripts.
2. To save, click on the "OK" button.

1. The result will be visible even without re-closing and opening the document. Almost all tools will be unavailable. The same is observed in every tab.

Encrypting a document

The above protection is not entirely effective. It, if desired, a knowledgeable person can get around without much effort. It is much more efficient to use file encryption.

Moreover, if you open the official Microsoft Help, you will see the following warning.

In order to encrypt an Excel file, you need to do the following.

1. Click on the "File" menu item.

Good day to all, dear friends! How are you? Personally, I have it on Friday, but it's not so hot on the street. Anyway. Please tell me how office suite do you use? I am sure that most of you use Microsoft Office, and I am no exception. And of course, everyone probably knows about excel too. So you know that it turns out that Excel has built-in protection?

No, I don't mean antivirus. I mean, you can protect this document with a password. In one of my articles I told, but I see no reason to use the program presented in that article if you need to protect an Excel document or information that can be placed in Text Document(e.g. names, passwords, etc.).

In general, today I will show you how to put a password on excel file if you don't already know it. Moreover, all these methods work great both in version 2010 and in version 2013. Let's go!

Password protection for opening

Everything. Now exit and Excel and open this document again. A window will pop up where you will need to enter your password. Just do not forget the passwords for the document, otherwise, unlike other Internet services, you will not be able to recover by e-mail or phone.

Editing protection

In addition to the usual password protection, you can block some specific functions on a separate sheet, or on the entire book as a whole. Let's see how this is done.

Well? Everything worked out? I think you shouldn't have had any problems. But if you still have problems, then contact us. I will help you).

Alternative way

You can put a password in a slightly different way.

Now let's try to go into the saved document and see how it works in action. If you set both passwords, then first you will have to break through the protection for opening, and then through the protection for editing (or open the document for reading only).

In general, as you can see, there are a whole bunch of ways to protect an Excel document. So you can choose anyone.

Well, this is where I end the article. I really hope that these tips will come in handy in your life. Be sure to subscribe to my blog updates to keep abreast of all the fun. Best wishes to you. See you in other articles. Bye Bye!

Best regards, Dmitry Kostin

The issue of data protection is especially relevant today. The network is full of intruders who can easily take over unprotected information. In addition, there are often cases when the user wants to install protection simply against prying eyes, for example, if several people use the same computer. In general, now we will not find out the motive for such a desire, but rather talk better about how to password-protect an excel file. In this article, Excel 2007 and 2010 turned out to be targeted, because the principle of setting a password will be the same for them. So, for everyone who wants to protect an Excel document, I suggest using one of two methods. Which ones? Find out further!

Method one

In fact, both methods are extremely simple and equally functional, so it doesn't matter which one you choose. It's just as simple. So, let's start with the algorithm for executing the first method:

1. Let's imagine that the required document is ready, all that remains is to password-protect it. To do this, press the large "Office" button in the upper left corner of the program.
2. In the opened context menu Click "Save As".
3. A new window will open, your task is to pay attention to the small "Service" button located next to "Save" and "Cancel". Click on it, and a small menu drops out, select the line "General parameters".
4. Then you can set passwords for two cases: to open a document and change it. Enter the required code and click "OK". From now on, every time a document is opened, each user will be prompted to enter set password... It is better to write down passwords somewhere differently, if you forget, you will have to rack your brains.

Method two

In addition to the above, I can offer another option for setting a password for an Excel document.

Adhering to these simple rules, you can install protection on any file in no time. Excel programs... Note that this feature is based on AES 128-bit encryption, which is considered the standard method for protecting a file.

Video to help