How To Lock An Entire Sheet In Google Sheets

Sharing a spreadsheet with different users is very effective when collaborating with other people or when we want other persons to check the work we’ve accomplished. However, we should also be careful when doing so because confidential data might be included in whatever we share.

That’s when protecting your sheet or a portion of cells from your sheet through locking them come in handy. If you want to share a specific file with another user, but it contains information you don’t want anyone else to see, try locking it.

Indeed, this is a lot helpful and efficient than making a separate copy of it and removing the private data from the file you wish to share. Read below and learn about the detailed process for locking sheets in Google Sheets.

1. Go to Google Sheets and open the specific file you want to edit.

To begin, log in to Google Sheets and then look for the file that contains the sheet you wish to modify.

2. In the menu bar, click “Data” then select “Protected Sheets and Ranges”.

After opening the sheet, select “Data” from the menu bar and select “Protected Sheets and Ranges” from the drop-down menu. If you’ve successfully selected it, a new panel will appear on the right side of the screen.

3. In the new panel, select “Add a sheet or range”.

Click the “Add a sheet or range” button on the right panel. A new menu will appear with two options for what you want to lock: Range or Sheet. If you wish to lock specific cell ranges, use “Range” and “Sheet” if you’re going to lock a whole sheet.

4. Select the “Sheet” option then choose which you want to lock.

Choosing the “Sheet” option will display all of the sheets in that specific file, allowing you to handpick the page(s) you want to lock. When you lock a sheet, viewers will be unable to alter anything on that particular sheet.

When locking an entire sheet, you still have the option to exempt a certain number of cells from it. To do so, you have to mark the checkbox beside the “Except certain cells” option.

Locking Specific Cells In Your Sheet

This method is ideal only if you want other people to access and amend your spreadsheet while protecting individual cells. To do so, pick “Range” instead of “Sheet” in the right panel, then click the table icon to select the particular cells you want to lock from the entire sheet.

5. To save the changes made, click on “Set Permission”.

If you’re confident that all of the inputs in the panel are valid and complete, click “Set Permission” to save all of the modifications made in locking the sheet or cells.

Takeaways

Now, you can ensure that the data you put in your spreadsheets are protected when you lock it. May it be an entire sheet or just a specific cell portion from a whole spreadsheet, both can easily be accomplished in Google Sheets. Locking sheets don’t have a limit, so you can repeat this process to as many sheets and many cell ranges in the spreadsheet you’re editing.

I hope that this guide answered the struggle you’re currently having with using Google Sheets!