If you use a computer, you probably have some Microsoft Excel documents on your Mac or PC that you wouldn’t want other people to find and read.
After all, Excel is used by the average person, businesses, government institutions, and millions of other folks all over the world. Whether you’re creating graphs, converting PDFs, or just inputting rows and rows of data, the best way to keep that information safe is to learn how to password protect an Excel file.
Adding a password
Step 1: In Excel, open the document you want to secure with a password.
Step 2: Click File, followed by Info.
Step 3: Next, click the Protect Workbook button. From the drop-down menu, select Encrypt with Password.
Now that you’ve password-protected your most important files, it might be worth considering adding extra layers of security to your system. The easiest way to protect a large number of files is to encrypt them. Luckily, encryption programs are not hard to find. Windows 10 Professional users have a built-in encryption utility called Bitlocker, but if you want to download a free version with lots of customization options for many types of data, you can try Crypto Expert 8 or VeraCrypt open source downloads.
Additional security options
Excel also allows you to apply more customized security options to your file if necessary. It’s important to know what these other options do so you can create the right security for your project. Under Protect Document, you’ll find several additional features that may prove useful:
Mark as Final: This will mark the file as completed, which lets other people know that they shouldn’t make any changes. Using this option will not secure the data behind a password, however, so it doesn’t offer any security.
Protect Current Sheet: This will guard the currently selected worksheet with a password so that people can’t make any changes. It’s a handy option if there’s only one sheet in the workbook that you want to protect, and you don’t mind if people can see the info — you just don’t want them messing with anything. You will notice that there’s also an option to do this with “Workbook Structure,” which protects data throughout the workbook from changes unless people have the password.
Restrict Access: This is a unique option used by organizations where IT has created security templates that essentially lock Excel files to only certain people or ranks. It’s handy in larger organizations where some people should be able to access the file, but not everyone.
Add a Digital Signature: This simply verifies the file as the real version, which is useful when sending it to other people or organizations, and to make sure it hasn’t been altered. It also helps files from being spied on when you send them digitally.
Martindale, Jon. “How to password protect an Excel File” Digital Trends March 17, 2020