In Excel 2007 why doesn't locking and protecting cells work?

This is literally driving me nuts. I've created a workbook with about 15 worksheets and prior to sending to the customer I want to lock the cells so that they can't be changed without a password. So, I first select the cells I don't want to be altered and lock them. Then I go to "protect worksheet" and after checking the box that allows people to select cells in the locked section (selection of sells in unlocked section checks automatically) I enter a password twice and the worksheet is theoretically locked.

The problem is that it's not. I can still change cells in the locked area. It didn't work on any of my worksheets. So I went back and unprotected the sheets and then selected and locked the cells TWICE, after which I protected the worksheets again. This time some, but not all, of the worksheets had locked the cells protecting them from editing. I then tried to go thru the same rigmarole but locking the cells three or four times before protecting the sheets for the sheets that were still unlocked, but that only worked sporadically as well. Sometimes I had to dis-allow selection, lock the cells in the sheet, unprotect it, lock the cells again twice, and then check the select box and protect the sheet AGAIN. That FINALLY worked.

What the heck is going on? Why doesn't locking the cells just lock them? This is getting *very* frustrating.

Note: On one of the sheets even the above rigmarole didn't work. I can't get the cells to lock no matter what I do. What's wrong???

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Here is a 'check list' for protecting your workbook :
Password protect worksheet or workbook elements - Excel - Microsoft Office

Just in case there are any errors, you could try the Diagnostics Tool :
Diagnose and repair crashing Office programs by using Office Diagnostics - Excel - Microsoft Office

JuliaHae said:

Hey Irene,

i had a similar issue. After some trial and error i found out that the solution is hidden on the "Review" tab in the "Changes" ribbon. There is a button called "Allow Users to Edit Ranges". You need to make sure that the cells that you want to protect are not specified as a range here, otherwise users will still be able to edit them even after you have protected the sheet.

That solved it for me. Good luck.

-Julia

Hi Julia, welcome to the forum. :)

Many thanks for your contribution.