This essentially means trying every possible password combination until you get the right one, very much like forcing a regular lock. The Brute Force Method is the most straightforward way of cracking password protected Excel files. However, it’s always safe to assume that Protect Sheet and Protect Workbook passwords can be cracked. You might be thinking that these measures will keep your workbook safe. This option prevents users from moving, resizing, closing, and hiding/unhiding workbook windows.
#EXCEL FOR MAC ENCRYPT WINDOWS#
The Windows option is available only in Excel 2007, Excel 2010, Excel for Mac 2011, and Excel 2016 for Mac. The "very hidden sheets" and VBA methods become redundant at this point, because all worksheet related options will be disabled. Password protecting will lock also "normal hidden sheets". This will also lock the ability to add or delete any worksheets. By protecting the Structure of a workbook, you can prevent users from modifying sheet names, position, or visibility. In addition to the Protect Sheet feature, Protect Workbook window gives you two options, Structure and Windows. The Format Cells window can be accessed by right-clicking a cell, and then clicking the Format Cells option. You check or lock/unlock cells from the Protection tab in the Format Cells window. To assist you with this process, Excel will place warning icons on cells with formulas that are not locked. If your cells are not locked, they will allow editing by anyone. Protect Sheet feature locks only cells that are marked as Locked. Here, you can fine-tune workbook access by selecting allowed features from the list.
Protect Sheet menu gives you several options to configure the end-user experience. The Protect feature can be found under the REVIEW tab in Changes section. With this, you can prevent users from changing any cell, worksheet, or workbook elements by password protecting. Using the Protect feature is a pretty straightforward way to password protect Excel files by creating read-only spreadsheets. There is another method that allows hiding worksheets in VBA window as well, but we will come to that later.
However, this method will only offer protection against those who are not familiar with the "very hidden" worksheet feature and VBA.
This is a very useful feature for when you want to truly hide a worksheet, because the sheet will not be accessible to most Excel users. Once a sheet is made ‘very hidden’, the option to unhide it will not be available in the sheet options menu when you right click.Įven if there is a ‘normally’ hidden sheet, we don't see our ‘very hidden’ sheet at the list. Click on a sheet name you want to hide (in the example below we selected Sheet2) and select 2 – xlSheetVeryHidden. You will see a new window with sheet names and properties at the left-side panel. To open VBA window, press the Alt + F11 key combination. By default, this feature is disabled and need to be activated from the Option menu. This property must be set using the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) module of Excel. Excel calls this worksheet state “ very hidden” under the constant name xlVeryHidden. So, what is with the “very” hidden? This is an alternative method to hide a worksheet, and worksheets hidden this way can't be made visible again by right-clicking and unhiding. All you need to do is right click again and select Unhide instead. Simple, right? It’s also just as easy to unhide a sheet. You may already know that you can hide a worksheet by right-clicking the sheet name and clicking Hide. First, let’s take a look at the “not-so-very” hide option. ‘very’ hidden worksheet might look like a typo, but it’s just what Excel calls this method. Let’s take a look at how you can protect your spreadsheets and limit certain features to your users. The biggest culprits in this half-promise are the availability of brute-force password decryption tools, and the way Excel keeps data in files. Although there really is no cookie-cutter approach to absolutely make sure a workbook is completely secure, the methods we’re going to cover in this article are a good start. Be it for protecting your intellectual property, monetizing your data model, or simply preventing user errors, there are several reasons why you might want to password protect Excel workbooks.Įxcel offers various ways to password protect your spreadsheets in the form of built-in features and VBA code. Some Excel files are the result of months of development and you may not want to pass this work to everyone lightly.
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