Spreadsheet Security
Data security is a big issue on everyone's mind these days. Excel provides you with two levels of security: password-protecting the workbook so that only users who have the password can open the file and spreadsheet protection that limits what kind of editing, if any, users can do to the existing content and structure of its worksheets.
In addition to these two levels of security, Excel also makes it possible for you to hide sensitive data in the worksheet that might not be appropriate for all users (such as employee salaries or performance review codes) but that nevertheless need to be part of the document.
This tutorial looks at all three aspects of spreadsheet security, giving you pointers on the best ways to preserve the integrity of your spreadsheet as well as guard against its more sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands.
In this tutorial:
- Assigning a Password for Opening a Workbook
- Opening a password-protected workbook
- Changing or deleting passwords
- Protecting the Worksheet Against Unwanted Changes
- Unlocking cells for data entry
- Turning on worksheet protection
- Removing protection from a worksheet
- Enabling cell range editing by certain users
- Protecting the structure of the workbook file
- Hiding Sensitive Worksheet Data