Read More: How to Protect Columns in Excel without Protecting Sheet (4 Easy Ways)Ģ. And you need to unprotect the sheet if you want to edit it further.

Here, make sure that the Protect worksheet and contents of locked cells option is checked.įrom now on, a warning box will appear preventing the selected columns from being edited. Then select Protect Sheet from the Protect group.

Next, select the Review tab from your ribbon.

At this instant check the Locked option in the Protection tab from the Format Cells box that popped up.

Now go back to your spreadsheet and select the columns you want to lock.

This will unlock all the cells in the spreadsheet. After that go to the Protection tab and uncheck the Locked option from it.

Consecutively the Format Cells box will open up.

Secondly, open up the context menu by right-clicking on the selection or pressing Shift+F10 on your keyboard.

Firstly, select all cells in the spreadsheet by clicking on the triangular sign where row headers and column headers meet.

Or you can press Shift+F10 on your keyboard.įor a more detailed guide, follow these steps. To open the context menu in Excel you either right-click on a cell or a selection. This method focuses on locking columns using the context menu before protecting a spreadsheet in Excel. Use of Context Menu to Protect Columns in Excel To illustrate each method, we will be using the following dataset.ġ. Not to mention, the VBA code you can use to protect columns in Excel. Also, there is another way where you can determine editable columns which will protect the other columns in the spreadsheet.

The basic idea is to lock the cells in an Excel column and then protect the sheet to avoid changes in those columns. Most of the methods mainly vary in how you are formatting the cells. In this tutorial, We will be going over 6 different methods to protect columns in Excel.

Number dialog box launcher excel mac