Excel 2013 How To: Password Protect a Document or Workbook
Written by Alan Wednesday, 22 August 2012 07:00
Microsoft recently rolled out the beta version of Office 2013, formerly known by the code-name “Office 15″. It’s not tremendously different from Office 2010, with the notable exception of the new “Start page”, which we like, but may not be for everyone. The new Office suite does have a different look to it, but it runs essentially the same as the last version. That means most tasks are carried out in essentially the same way, but the new UI may confuse some casual users. With that in mind, we have been embarking on a quest to give some details on carrying out some basic tasks in different apps, and today we are looking at password protecting an Excel document or workbook.
With a document open in Excel 2013, click the “File” menu.
From the File menu choose “Info” then click “Protect Workbook”.
From here you will get several options – “Mark as final”, “Encrypt with password”, “Protect current sheet”, “Protect workbook structure”, or “Add a digital signature”. For our purposes we want to choose either option 2, 3, or 4. The first and third choices give you the chance to enter a password of your choice. The second, “Protect current sheet”, allows you to lock certain columns or cells, determine what users can can and can’t do, and add a password.
That’s all you need to do to protect your Excel files. It’s essentially the same as Office 2010, just with a new UI laid over top of it. Office 2013 will likely be released in early 2013, but you can get a beta copy at Microsoft Office Preview.
