Excel Password

Where Does This Excel Password Go?

If your Excel spreadsheet contains important read-only information that you don't want its viewers to change, you can protect it with an Excel password. There are two levels of protection available. You can elect to protect the whole workbook, or you can protect a particular worksheet within that workbook. Let's look at protecting an individual worksheet first. To do this click Review > Changes > Protect Sheet. In the Protect Sheet dialog box, tell Excel what kind of restrictions you want to put in place by checking the boxes against the actions you want to allow readers to perform. Note the password box. Assigning a password to this worksheet (you have to enter it twice to confirm) will protect it from change until the correct password is again entered. Only the current worksheet is affected by this restriction, and other worksheets in the workbook are available for update as normal.

Removing The Excel Password

To remove the password protection for the worksheet, click Review > Changes > Unprotect Sheet and enter the password. The worksheet is now available for update again.

Protecting the workbook requires a similar task. To the right of the Protect Sheet button you saw earlier is the Protect Workbook button. Clicking this gives you the option of protecting the structure and windows of your workbook. Structural changes include the addition, deletion and moving of worksheets. When protecting the workbook, you have to enter and confirm a password.

Whilst the structure of the workbook is then protected, you can still change the contents of cells. You just can't manipulate the worksheets themselves. To remove the protection from the workbook click Review > Changes > Protect Workbook > Protect Structure and Windows. Type in the password again.

Forgetting Your Excel Password

But what happens if you forget your Excel password? Don't worry. There are a variety of Excel password removers on the market - and some of them are free. Here is a sample of the more popular Excel password removers:

• Excel Password Remover 2009
• Passware Kit Standard 9.0
• Password Recovery Engine for Excel