There are tons of users working with Microsoft programs, these programs are excellent for many office jobs. Excel, among its workings, helps to work with numbers and information that is grouped in rows.
This Microsoft program has several functions requested by users, for example the code function or also some formulas that must be used within the spreadsheet. Because it is so necessary, many people are looking for ways to best handle it.
This highly requested and feature- rich program is installable on various versions of Windows . For example, in the latest version of Windows 10, it can also be obtained with its updates. This article will show how within Excel, a number of cells and formulas can be fixed, locked or protected at the same time.
- Can cells be locked in Excel?
- Lock cells in Excel sheets
- How to totally lock a cell in a worksheet so that it cannot be edited
- How to Freeze in Excel Easily
- Immobilize Panels
- Freeze the top row
- Only the first column
- How many cells can be frozen at most in Excel
- How to prevent your formulas from being deleted by mistake
- With data validation
- Protects the entire leaf
Can cells be locked in Excel?
When starting to work with this program, many have noticed that after placing a title and downloading Excel cells, they can lose everything previously written there. But can that be prevented from happening? Yes. All you have to do is fix these cells in Excel . It is possible to do this in each of the versions of Excel.
At this point, the importance of knowing how to use programs as useful as Excel, belonging to the number of programs provided by Microsoft Office , is noted . These programs are extremely necessary to do any work from the computer.
Lock cells in Excel sheets
The reason why some users lock the cells is because it is useful to continue having the title visible without losing what has already been written , as mentioned above. It is necessary to emphasize that these blocking functions can only be done under some rules.
First, only those who manage the spreadsheet can lock or unlock it. Second, the owner can also continue editing the Excel cells . And third, those who edit these spreadsheets will be able to see the locked cells, however they will not be able to edit them or change the data that is already established in them.
Under Excel tools, columns cannot be locked if they are for attachments . And if a row has already been frozen, it will have an icon at the top of the row that will openly show that it has been locked. These steps provide convenience to those who are working with the spreadsheets, as they will already be warned that those cells cannot be edited.
How to totally lock a cell in a worksheet so that it cannot be edited
It is possible in a spreadsheet to lock cells so that they are not editable , but first you will need to protect the sheet. In this case you must do the following to protect the sheet, go to the top menu and select the ‘Review’ tab. Then go to the section or group of ‘Changes’ and now select the option ‘Protect sheet’.
At this point it is possible to lock one or more cells to prevent them from being edited and to perform this operation you must do the following. Select the cell or cells you want to lock. Then go to the top menu and select the ‘Home’ tab and then click on ‘Format Cell’.
This action will generate on the screen the ‘Format cells’ box with several tabs and in our case we will select the ‘Protect’ tab. The next step is to mark the checkbox with the option ‘Blocked’. And to finish you must click on the ‘OK’ option so that the selected cell or cells are locked .
How to Freeze in Excel Easily
Another action that we can carry out in Excel in a very simple way and that many users are unaware of the calculation editor is to freeze. In this way we will be able to see all the information or data that we have in our sheet or book . Through the ‘View’ tab it will be possible to freeze panels, rows or columns.
Now a series of steps will be mentioned that will allow these Excel cells to be locked or fixed . So they will be immobilized when working on the spreadsheet.
The first thing to do is open the document in which you want to fix the row. Then the user must locate the row that he wants to fix.
After having it located, the user should be directed to the option of the panel that says view. This can be located at the top of the toolbar. When you click it, you can choose where it says to freeze . Following that, three options to choose from will be displayed on the screen.
The user must know which of all the options is the one that best suits what he needs. For example, if the user clicks to freeze panels , this will give him the opportunity that the columns can be blocked , and also that the rows he chooses to be blocked. By doing that, the other cells in the spreadsheet can be shifted.
Freeze the top row
In the event that you want to freeze or lock the first row of your spreadsheet, you are going to carry out these simple steps. First go to the top menu and click on the ‘View’ tab, then you must select the ‘Freeze’ option. This action will display a menu on the screen and in it you will select by clicking on the ‘ Freeze top row ‘ option .
Only the first column
You must proceed in the same way if you want to freeze or lock the first column in your spreadsheet. Go to the top menu and click on ‘View’. Then select the Freeze option to display the menu containing three options. And in our particular case we must select ‘ Freeze first column’ .
How many cells can be frozen at most in Excel
The number of cells that can be frozen will depend on the number of cells that a row or column contains . It will also be necessary to consider that if the number of cells that the row or column contains is greater than what is shown on the screen. It will be useless to use this function because you will not be able to have it in view while you are in another area of the spreadsheet
How to prevent your formulas from being deleted by mistake
It is very important that when creating a spreadsheet, the formulas it contains can be kept safe, otherwise our entire project would be lost. So in order to prevent the formulas from being deleted, it will be necessary to protect the entire Excel sheet . Or we can also do it by means of data validation, let’s see then how to carry out these two methods.
With data validation
The first method that we are going to use is data validation and with it we will avoid that values or data can be written in the cells that contain formulas . What we must do is the following, in the first instance go to the top menu and click on the ‘Home’ tab. Now we will go to the ‘Modify’ section and then we will click on ‘Search select’.
The next step is to go to ‘Formulas’ and select the formulas found in the spreadsheet. Next we are going to click on the ‘Data’ tab and then on the ‘ Data tools ‘ section or group . In the menu we select the option ‘Data validation’ and a box will now be displayed where we are going to click on the ‘Settings’ tab.
Now we must find and select the option ‘Allow’ and then we choose the option ‘ Custom from the list ‘. The last step we are going to perform is to write the following command ( = ””) without the parentheses in the ‘Formula’ box.
Protects the entire leaf
Another method that we can use to avoid modifying a formula or several in our spreadsheet is by protecting the sheet. To do this you must follow these steps, first we go to the option ‘Cells’ then ‘Format’ and then we select the option ‘Lock cell’. In this section we will find and select the option ‘Protect sheet’.
Now a box will appear on the screen and in it we will be asked to enter a password and in this way the spreadsheet will be protected . It is important that you know that this protection can be reversed and for this you will be asked to enter the password again
To protect the formulas, the user can also choose all the cells in a row, with the Ctrl + 1 key a tab will appear that shows the word format. And then the user can go to the tab that says “protect sheet”. There will be a section that will indicate the cell format , when entering this it will be possible to select all the formulas.
Again, the user must press the Ctrl + 1 keys and now leave a mark where the lock indicates within the section of the sheet that says Protect. This will lock cells with formulas.