ExcelBanter - Things to do with the cells

On Dec 7, 6:56*pm, DDD wrote:
Can any one tell me what each of these mean

Locking & unlocking
Protecting & unprotecting
Hide & unhide (I know what it is, but just checking to make sure)

It would be great if it was kept to simple explanations

When you are finished with Excel worksheet construction and you may
want to add protection to your sheets so the formulas and data will
not be accidentally deleted or changed.

Protection is a two step process. First, tell Excel what cells to lock
or hide and secondly, turn ON the protection.

In some worksheets you may want all cells protected, but some
worksheets will have cells or cell ranges you want unprotected so you
can enter data or change selection criteria.

The first step is to tell Excel what cells you would like to protect.
This act in itself does not protect anything until you complete the
second step which is turn the protection ‘ON’.

Select the cells on the sheet you want to protect. If you would like
to protect the entire sheet, click the select all button. Now click Alt
+O+E. This is the shortcut for formatting cells. In Excel 2007 you get
to this by clicking the Home Tab, selecting Format in the Cells box
and clicking Format Cells.

Once the Format Cells dialog box is open, select the Protection Tab
and place a check in both boxes, Locked and Hidden. Click OK.

This process has told Excel that when and if you protect the sheet,
which cells will be protected and which ones will not. A locked cell
will not allow any data entry. A Hidden cell will not allow a user to
see the formulas in the formula bar. Generally, you want both Locked
and Hidden to be selected.

The sheet is NOT protected yet. You have just told Excel which cells
to protect, but you have not performed step 2 which is to turn
protection ‘ON’. To protect the sheet, click Alt+T+P+P to open the
Protect Sheet dialog box. In Excel 2007 you can select the Review tab
and click Protect Sheet.

Before you enter a password, you may want to check several boxes in
the ‘Allow all users of this worksheet to:’ box. In this box, check:
• Format Columns
o This will allow users to widen the columns should their numbers
exceed the column width.
• Edit Objects
o This will allow users to add comments to the report even if
protected.

Now enter a password, click OK and in the next window reenter your
password.

Your sheet is now protected.

Hope this helps