Microsoft Office

Protecting
Your Work
The concept of “protection” gets a lot of attention in the Excel newsgroups
and forums. It seems that many users want to learn how to protect their
workbooks from being copied or modified. Excel has several protectionrelated
features, and those features are covered in this chapter.
Types of Protection
Excel’s protection-related features fall into three categories:
IN THIS CHAPTER
Protecting worksheets
Protecting workbooks
Protecting VB Projects
Other related topics
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Worksheet protection: Protecting a worksheet from being modified,
or restricting the modifications to certain users.
Workbook protection: Protecting a workbook from having sheets
inserted or deleted, and also requiring the use of password in order to
open the workbook.
VB protection: Using a password to prevent others from viewing or
modifying your VBA code.
Before I discuss these features, you should understand the
CAUTION
notion of security. Using a password to protect some aspect
of your work doesn’t guarantee that it’s secure. Password-cracking utilities (and
some simple tricks) have been around for a long time. Using passwords work in
the vast majority of cases, but if someone is truly intent on getting to your data,
he or she can usually find a way. If absolute security is critical, perhaps Excel isn’t
the proper tool.
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