How to put a password on a document in Excel

Protecting an Excel document with a password is an important measure to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the information you have stored.

This is a practice that helps you prevent unauthorized access and improper modifications to your spreadsheet by ensuring that only authorized people can view or edit it.

Although a password can be forgotten or hacked, its use remains an effective barrier against casual intrusions.

Excel has a feature that allows you to set passwords to protect all of your spreadsheets, adding an extra layer of security to your files.

In this article, we explain in detail how to add this layer of protection quickly and easily, ensuring that your documents are always safe.

Use the “Protect Workbook” feature to password protect an Excel document

To add a password to your Excel document you can use the “Protect Workbook” feature. Follow these simple steps:

-Open a document in Excel, either blank or with information loaded.

-Locate the option called “File” in the top left menu and click there.

-An information window will open and you must position yourself on the tab called “Information”.

-Look for the “Protect Workbook” option. This feature lets you control the changes others can make to your workbook.

photo of protecting excel file

-Click on the “Protect book” resource and several options will open.

-Find and select the one that says “Encrypt with password.”

Photo of how to put a password on an Excel file

-A window will appear for you to encrypt the document.

-Enter your password and, if you already have it ready, press the “Accept” option.

photo of how to apply encryption to excel

Please note that if you lose or forget this key, you will not be able to reset it later and you will not be able to recover the file in Excel.Therefore, choose a password that you can remember well and try to distinguish between upper and lower case letters, since the system is case sensitive.

Mark a document in Excel as final

You can also protect your Excel spreadsheet by marking it as final. This helps you indicate to readers that this is the final version and they can only read it in read mode. To do this, just follow these steps:

-Open the Excel document.

-Locate the “File” option in the top left menu.

-Then locate “Information”.

-Click on “Protect book”.

-Select “Mark as final.”

photo of how to mark excel as final

-Click “Accept” and the changes will be established.

Protect a single Excel sheet

You can also protect a single sheet if you wish. To do so, follow these steps:

-Open the document and look for the “File” option.

-Then select “Information”, and click on the option “Protect workbook” and then “Protect current sheet”.

photo of how to protect current sheet in excel

-Enter the password and it will show you a list of things you can allow users to do.

-Select in the box what they can do, whether it be inserting columns, deleting rows, modifying objects, applying formulas, etc.

photo of protected excel sheet

-Once you have the permissions set, click “Accept” and it will be ready.

How to protect the structure of the book

You can also use the “Protect Workbook Structure” feature to preserve the structure of the worksheet so that no one can add anything to it. To do this, follow these simple steps:

-Open your Excel document.

-Locate the “File” option.

photo of how to protect the structure of the book

-Press on “Information” and then “Protect book”.

photo of how to protect the structure of a book and apply a password

-Click on “Protect book structure”, enter the key, confirm and that’s it.

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