How To Password Protect An Excel File
The steps below describe how to password protect a file that either:
- Prevents others from opening your file
or
- Allows others to open and view your file but prevents them from modifying it.
Steps To Password Protect an Excel File
-
Step 1: Open The 'Save As' Dialog Box
The 'Save As' dialog box can be opened up by either:
- Pressing the keyboard shortcut F12
or
-
Clicking on the File tab on the Excel ribbon and selecting Save As from the list on the left hand side.
(In the latest versions of Excel, you may initially be presented with the basic 'Save As' options in your Excel window. In this case, click on More options... to bring up the dialog box).
Save As More options... Link
-
Step 2: Within the 'Save As' Dialog Box, Click On Tools→General Options...
Within the 'Save As' dialog box, click on the Tools drop-down menu and select General Options....
-
Step 3: Select the Type of Protection You Require And Type in a Password
The 'General Options' dialog box will then pop up. Within this, there are two password options:
- Password to open - Type a password into this field if you want to prevent others from opening your spreadsheet.
- Password to modify - Type a password into this field if you want to allow other people to open and view your spreadsheet, but you want to prevent them from modifying it.
Once you have typed in a password, click on OK to close the 'General Options' dialog box. At this stage, Excel will ask you to confirm the password you have typed in.
-
Step 4: Save The File
Back in the 'Save As' dialog box, click on the Save button to save the password protected version of your file.
If you are saving the file under the same name that it is already saved, you will get the 'Confirm Save As' pop-up message box, asking you to confirm that you want to save over the previous version of this file.
How To Remove Password Protection From an Excel File
If you want to remove the password protection from a file that you have previously protected:
- From within the open workbook, open up the 'Save As' dialog box;
- Once again, select General Options from the Tools drop-down menu;
- Within the 'General Options' dialog box, delete any passwords and click OK.
- Back in the 'Save As' dialog box, save the file under its existing name.