How to Lock and Protect Individual Cells in Excel + Bonus Tips for Quick Setup

In this video I explain how to lock & protect individual cells or ranges for editing. This is useful when you only want users to be able to edit specific cells and protect other cells that might contain formulas.

Locking cells is a great technique for files that you share with others to fill out, like quote sheets, invoices, inventory lists, budgets, forecasts, etc.

Locking individual cells for editing is a two step process:

1. Lock or unlock individual cells/ranges.
2. Protect the worksheet.

By default, all cells in Excel are Locked. So we typically need to unlock the cells that will be edited or modified by users.

In the video I also share some Bonus Tips to help make it easier for both you and your users. This includes:
- How to prevent the user from selecting locked cells, for faster data entry.
- How to add the Lock button to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) to view the locked state and change it quickly.
- How to use cell formatting (fill color) to denote locked and unlocked cells.

Please leave a comment below with any questions or suggestions. Thanks! 🙂

Additional Resources:

00:00 Introduction
00:25 Lock and Protect Individual Cells
03:58 Bonus Tips

[Evolve]

Out of the 8 videos I've watched and multiple resources on the internet, you are the only one that I've found so far that has explained this correctly. No one ever mentions the defaults within Excel, and the order of operations from most is not detailed in the best way. THANK YOU MY GOOD WISE SIR!

[askingwhy]

This video not only taught me exactly what I needed to know in under three minutes, it also restored some of my faith in humanity! You've got a friend in Germany!

[SarahLovesU]

omg! I was trying to get a tutorial on how to do this and it was so confusing! I came here, and just like that I'm all set! You just gained a new subscriber from a 5 year old video :)

[sklee]

I watched many times, but finally I got it work for me. Thanks for sharing. I wish I could find you two years ago.

[alanrichardson]

At last! A straightforward explanation for locking and protected cells in Excel. Thanks Jon I will be back to Excel Campus again!

[michaelmontgomery]

Worth watching. Clear, concise, good job. Thanks from Cape Town!

[mukwera]

Many thanks !!! I have watched a couple of videos on this subject and yours is the only one that makes sense - the secret to unlocking this mystery was your comment, "This is a 2 step process" - Once again - thankyou. I "get it" now.

[JessyAleppy]

I really got what exactly i am looking for! Other channels not covered the topic the way you covered in detailed manner. Love you lot 🥰😍

[Kunanakuyalstainde]

I knew how to protect cells prior to seeing your video, but your explanation is the best, very simple and straight forward for anyone to pick up and run with. Kudos!

[manishsrivastava]

Exactly what I need, I get from this video 👍👍👍

[azaz]

Thanks Jon, for the lesson it was really useful, i will put it on practice...

[voiceInDetroit]

great job. no wasted time. You taught me a lot in a short video.

[syammaddukuri]

thanks .., got the real one after watching somany videos ....

[ajlong]

This was perfect. And your microphone sounds terrific.

[TBeau]

I finally got them to work after watching this video.

[lorieadams]

Thank you for your video! This was very helpful and easy to follow and implement while watching!

[weekender]

Spot on. Clear and concise.  Look forward to other videos from you.

[blike]

You're an absolute legend. Thanks champ.

[maryandbrianbaulkhamhills]

Echo the comments below. Great presentation and easy to follow. Thanks heaps

[ketsyprophete]

Thank you!! This video is so easy to follow and understand!