Setting a password for files in Microsoft Excel. How to put a password on an Excel file

Security and data protection are one of the main directions of development of modern information technologies. The relevance of this problem is not decreasing, but only growing. Data protection is especially important for tabular files, which often store important commercial information. Let's learn how to protect Excel files with a password.

The program developers were well aware of the importance of being able to set a password specifically for Excel files, so they introduced several options for performing this procedure. At the same time, it is possible to set a key both for opening a book and for changing it.

Method 1: Set a password when saving a file

One method involves setting a password directly when saving the Excel workbook.

This way we protected the Excel file. Now, to open and edit it, you will need to enter the appropriate passwords.

Method 2: Set a password in the "Information" section

The second method involves setting a password in the Excel section "Intelligence".

Method 3: Setting a password and removing it in the “Review” tab

The ability to set a password also exists in the tab "Review".

As you can see, Microsoft Excel offers several ways to protect a file with a password, both from intentional hacking and from unintentional actions. You can password protect both opening a book and editing or changing its individual structural elements. At the same time, the author himself can determine from which changes he wants to protect the document.

Instructions

As with any document created in Microsoft Office, be it Access or Word, Excel files (*.xls format) also support setting a password. Once you have finished working with the document, click the "File" button in the top Microsoft Excel control menu. In the "File" drop-down menu, you will see a "Save As" option. Click on it with the left mouse button once. In the window that appears for saving the document, next to the “Save” button, find the “Tools” drop-down menu, click on the inverted triangle and the “General Settings” item that appears.

A small General Settings window will appear on the screen. In it you must specify a password to open the document and/or a password to change the document. Here you can also check the "Recommend Read Only" checkbox so that the Excel toolbar is disabled by default. In case you set a password only to open the document, each time you open your spreadsheet, you will be required to enter a password, and any user who knows password, will be able to edit data in tables and create new ones. When you set a password to change a document, the file will be opened as usual, without prompting for any passwords, but after entering new data into the table, when you try to save the document, you will be required to enter a password. Setting both passwords will require double entry when opening and closing a document. Moreover, the passwords for opening an Excel file and for editing it may not be the same.

After a password or pair of passwords has been entered, click the “OK” button in the “General Settings” window, then enter the document name in the Explorer window and click “Save”.

note

Remember that if you lose your password, you will not be able to open the document in any way. The password is entered once and is displayed as asterisks, so pay attention to whether Caps Lock is turned on.

Sources:

• how to put a password on an excel document

Various financial calculations are often performed in Excel spreadsheets. It is highly undesirable for this information to reach third parties. Therefore, it becomes necessary to set a password for Excel documents. This can be done using the program itself.

You will need

• PC, Excel 2003, ability to work with spreadsheets

Instructions

Download Excel 2003 spreadsheet software (this is by far the most popular version). Create the required table and make calculations in it by filling it out. You can simply open a ready-made Excel file containing a ready-made table. Files created with this program have the extension .xls.

After the file is opened, proceed to create a password, to do this, follow these steps: find the “Service” item in the menu at the top of the window and left-click on it;
in the submenu that opens, find and click on the “Options” line, which will open a window;
at the top of the window, find the “Security” tab and left-click on it;
in the “File encryption options for this book” section, set a password, and by clicking on the button, additionally select the encryption type; it is recommended to leave the default one;
Click the “Ok” button at the bottom of the window, then confirm the selected password again in the small window that appears.

Today we will consider the question: How to put a password on a documentWordAndExcel? This is the third article in a series in which we talk about the protection of personal information. In the first article we talked about: How to put a password on a folder? Then they touched on the question: How to set a password on a computer? Today we will look at the following question: How to set a password for any document in Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher?

Know about how to put a password on documents, is especially important when you have to use the same computer with your colleagues at work. I want to please you, Microsoft Office products provide a document protection function. Let's look at how this is done:

— For those who use Microsoft Office 2003 you need:

Open a Word, Excel and PowerPoint document, then go to the “Tools” section and select “Options” from the submenu:

After the “Settings” window opens, go to the “Security” tab, and in the line “Encryption options for this document” Enter your password:

Next, click on the button "Additionally", which is located next to the password entry field. A window will open "Encryption type" in which select any type of encryption with a key strength of 128.

Click on the “OK” button, and then re-enter the password to confirm.

That's all, now in order to open your document you need to enter a password.

— For those who use Microsoft Office 2007 you need:

Open a Word, Excel and PowerPoint document, and then open the main menu of the program. Then go to the "Prepare" section and select "Encrypt document":

That's all, now your document is password protected; when you open it, the program asks you to enter the password:

— For those who use Microsoft Office 2010 you need:

Open a Word, Excel and PowerPoint document, then open the “File” section and select the “Information” element. Then in the “Permissions” line, select the method of protecting the document, namely the item "Encrypt with password":

After opening the window "Document encryption" enter the password and confirm it by re-entering it, then click on “OK”

Close the document saving the changes. That's it, the document is password protected.

If you want to protect your Microsoft Office 2010 Word and Excel document from editing or changes, you can do this by going to the "Review" tab and in the "Protect" group select "Limit Editing":

After which a window will open "Limit Formatting", in which you can choose the editing method. Choose the method that suits you and click on the button “Yes, turn on protection”.

So we figured out the question of how to put a password on a Word and Excel document?

Good luck to you and see you again on the blog pages

Data security is a burning issue for many computer users, especially when it comes to PCs that are used by several people at once. Almost every computer is connected to the Internet, and it is no secret that a large number of virus programs roam the network, some of which can transmit important information from the user’s computer to attacker’s servers. In addition, hackers are also capable of hacking someone else’s cloud storage, where many people store data for convenient work with it on several devices at once.

All of the above suggests that at any moment this or that file can be lost and fall into the “wrong hands”. If we are talking about a Word or Excel file, this may be an important document, the loss of which is undesirable and sometimes dangerous. Some users store important passwords in text documents, others create unique content (write scripts or books), and attackers can get all this. To avoid this situation, you can store documents in archives that have a password. But it is much more convenient to use the built-in functions of text editors, and from this article you will learn how to set a password on a Word or Excel document without using third-party programs.

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Setting a password in Word 2003 (Excel 2003)

The programs of the Microsoft Office 2003 suite have become very widespread, and many users still do not give up on them. They are often installed on low-power office computers, in schools, institutes and wherever Word, Excel, PowerPoint and others with basic functions are needed.

It was in Office 2003 applications that for the first time it became possible to set a password for a Word or Excel document. To do this you need:

Please note that for each specific document created on a computer, you must set a password separately.

Setting a password in Word 2007 (Excel 2007)

The most common office application package in Russia is Microsoft Office 2007. Over the years, it has not lost its popularity, and millions of people are accustomed to working with it. You can password protect Word or Excel documents from the 2007 office suite as follows:

Important: If you want to remove the set password from the document, repeat the procedure for setting it, but instead of the entered password, leave a blank line and click “OK”. In this case, Microsoft Office will automatically detect that the user wants to remove the password from the Word (Excel) document and will not force him to repeat the command, as happens at the time of installation.

Setting a password in Word 2010, 2013, 2016 (Excel 2010, 2013, 2016)

The process of setting a password for a document in modern versions of office applications from Microsoft is not much different from the option for Office 2007. However, modern programs have received a new design, and it would not hurt to give an example:

The process for deactivating a password in Word 2010 and later versions is identical to how it works in Word 2007.

Important: If the Word or Excel file was encrypted in a modern version of Microsoft Office (after 2010) or in the online version of Office 365, you will not be able to open the document in Word 2007 and earlier versions.

The password that protects an Excel workbook (at the file level) controls access in two ways: it allows the user to sign in, and it allows the user to save changes. Before we discuss Excel's password protection feature, let's be clear on what we mean by protection.

Although the terms "security" and "protection" are usually used interchangeably, functionally in Excel, they are not the same thing. Security allows you to choose who can access your data. Security restricts users to only viewing and not making changes. Security is access, protection is maintaining integrity.

To assign a password to an Excel file, follow these steps:

Step 3. In the dialog box that appears, you can set two passwords: one to open the workbook and one to edit the workbook. Advanced options allow you to set encryption options for added security.

Step 4. Enter one or both passwords and click OK.

Step 5. Confirm each password and click OK.

On a note! to open the book is self-explanatory. If the user does not know the password, he or she cannot open the file. Remember that this password only holds users back. A user who knows this password has access to all data and can change the data once.

By assigning a second password, you can allow users to open the workbook and view data, but not allow users to actually modify the workbook. A user who knows this password can view and change data and save changes to the workbook.

A user who does not know the password can view the data, but it is read-only. This user can still change the data, but a password-protected workbook will prevent the user from saving the changes. This user simply cannot save changes to the protected workbook. However, the user can enter a new name and create a new workbook.

Video - Password Protecting a Microsoft Excel File

Security at the sheet level

You can protect not only the entire file or book, but also individual sheets of the document. This is just as easy to do, look at the screenshots below.

Step 1. In the Review section, select the level of protection you require.

Step 2. Enter your password, selecting the type of protection you require.

Click on the "OK" button. From this moment on, the document or its components will be safe; no one will be able to edit them. This doesn't mean other people won't be able to access them.

Password encryption

In addition to security, Microsoft Excel allows you to encrypt a file using a separate password. This process will be irreversible if you forget your password. In this case, you will never be able to access them. Keep your password in a place inaccessible to others and don't forget it.

Setting an external password on an Excel file

In addition to the internal password, you can set up additional protection using special programs for hiding, password protection and encryption. Most of them are free and very easy to use. The table below shows the most popular programs that help protect your Excel files.

Encryption method	Description
Creating an encrypted archive	Windows XP allows you to create password-protected ZIP files. On Windows 7, you can download a free third-party file compression program. It's better to use the completely free and open source 7-Zip. Create a new file adding all sensitive files and set a password. All files will be encrypted
Encryption with TrueCrypt	Create a container that will store and protect files on your hard drive. No one will be able to access the contents of the folder without a password
FolderGuard	Powerful computer security software. It can be used to control access to files to other system resources. You can use FGuard to protect your personal documents and folders with passwords so that others cannot view or change them. You can password-protect any folder on your computer, allowing only authorized users to view protected files

Video - Protecting Cells and Sheets in Microsoft Excel

On a note

Before you start password-protecting all your books, there are three important things to keep in mind:

1. Anyone who has a password to change a workbook can also remove the password protection! Use this particular option wisely.
2. Regular users can use a password cracking program. Your best defense against this type of forgery (or theft) is to assign a very long password of random characters. This will not protect against hacking by specialized software 100%, but it will slow it down. This delay may cause a potential attacker to put off working on it.
3. If you've forgotten your password and can't log into your workbook and make changes, you can purchase password cracking software yourself.

Excel password protection is a great feature, and fortunately, it's easy to implement. Don't confuse protection and security, don't rely only on the internal password. There are many different types of encryption provided by third party software.