Easily configure cells to be locked or unlocked when protecting worksheet

In Excel, the worksheet cells are all locked by default, all cells are not editable when protecting worksheet. If you want others to edit some ranges in a protected worksheet, you should better let those ranges to be unlocked. Kutools for Excel’s Design View includes Lock Cells and Unlock Cells features which can help you easily configure cells to be locked or unlocked when protecting worksheet.

Unlock selected cells or ranges and highlighting unlocked cells with color

Lock selected cells or ranges in worksheet

Click Kutools Plus >> Design View, and a new Kutools Design tab will display in the ribbon, see screenshots:

Unlock selected cells or ranges and highlighting unlocked cells with color

To quickly unlock selected cells, please do as follows:

1. Select the cells which you want to unlock, you can hold Ctrl key to select multiple ranges as you need.

2. Click Kutools Plus > Design View, and a new Kutools Design tab will appear in the ribbon. Click Unlock Cells option in the Protect group under Kutools Design tab, see screenshot:

3. And then a prompt box will pop out, click OK to close this box, and all the selected cells have been unlocked.

4. When you need to protect this worksheet, you can protect it by clicking Protect Sheet under this Kutools Design tab, see screenshot:

5. And then enter and confirm the password you need in the popped out dialogs, see screenshot:

6. And after worksheet protecting, you can highlight the unlocked cells to view them quickly and easily, please click Highlight Unlocked option under the Kutools Design tab, and the unlocked cells will be highlighted with a color, see screenshot:

Lock selected cells or ranges in worksheet

If your worksheet has multiple unlocked cells, you can lock them quickly with the Lock Cells feature of Kutools for Excel without going to the Format Cells dialog, please do as follows:

1. Select the whole worksheet which you want to lock the unlocked cells.

2. And then click Kutools Plus > Design View, and a new Kutools Design tab will appear in the ribbon. Click Lock Cells option in the Protect group, see screenshot:

3. And a prompt box will pop out, click OK to close it, and all the unlocked cells have been locked at once.

Tip: If you only want to lock parts of unlocked cells, you can apply Highlight Unlocked feature to highlight all the unlocked cells for view easily, and then select the cells you need to lock, and click Lock Cells to lock the selected cells.

Demo: Easily configure cells to be locked or unlocked when protecting worksheet