How to Lock Cells in Excel 2016

By default, when you protect a sheet or workbook, all of the cells will be locked. This means they can't be reformatted or deleted, and the content in them can't be edited. By default, the locked cells can be selected, but you can change that in the protection options.

1. Navigate to the Review tab.

2. Click Protect Sheet. In the Protect Sheet window, enter a password that's required to unprotect the sheet (optional) and any of the actions you want to allow users.

3. Click OK to protect the sheet.

When you or anyone else tries to edit any of the locked cells, this message will come up:

The cells can only be unlocked when the sheet is unprotected (by going to the Review tab again, choosing "Unprotect Sheet," and entering the password, if required).

How to Lock Specific Cells in a Worksheet

There might be times when you want to lock certain cells from being changed but still allow users to adjust other cells in a worksheet. In our example, in an inventory list you might allow unit prices and stock quantities to be updated, but not the item IDs, names, or descriptions. As mentioned above, all cells are locked by default when you protect the sheet. However, you can specify whether a cell should be locked or unlocked in the cell's format properties.

1. Select all the cells you don't want to be locked. These will be the cells that can be edited even after the sheet is protected.

2. Right-click on your selection, select Format Cells, and click on the Protection tab.(Alternatively, under the Home tab, click on the expansion icon next to Alignment, and in the Format Cells window go to the Protection tab.)

3. Uncheck "Locked" (which is checked by default) and click OK.

4. Go to Review > Protect Sheet and hit OK to protect the sheet. Any cells you didn't unlock under the Format Cells option (step 3 above) will be locked, while the unlocked cells will be editable:

note that cell locking (or unlocking) won't take effect until you do step 4, protecting the sheet.