How to Restrict Users to Edit in the Specified Ranges of Worksheet

Sometimes, you have to give different levels of permission to people to edit in the same worksheet. Some people may only have the right to check out the data, while others could edit and save the data. This article will guide you to realize how to limit other users to edit in the specified ranges in Spreadsheets, by usingAllow Users to Edit Ranges button.

Step 1 Open an existing worksheet and go to Review tab, click Allow Users to Edit Rangesoption. The following dialog will pop up.

Figure 1 Allow users to edit ranges in worksheet

Step 2 Click New in button in the Allow Users to Edit Ranges dialog box (see Figure 1), and the New Rangedialog box will pop up (see Figure 2). Input the title of the new range.

Figure 2 Add new range for editing

Step 3 In New Range dialog box, click the fold button in Refer to cells field to select the cell range: B3:E6 in the workbook, and click the fold button again to return to the New Range dialog box.

Figure 3 Add new range to protect

Step 4 After going back to the New Range dialog box, click OK to confirm. If you would like to allow people edit this range, then you should not set the Range Password.

Step 5 After going back to the Allow Users to Edit Ranges dialog box, click OK to return to the workbook. Click the Protect Sheet button in Figure 1.

Figure 4 Protect worksheet with password

Step 6 In the Protect Sheet dialog box, set the password for the Select locked cells and Select the unlocked cells.

Step 7 After clicking the OK button, the Confirm Password dialog box will pop up. Reenter password to proceed. Then press OK.

Figure 5 Confirm password

The protection on the sheet is active now.

Notes:

1. You should keep the password in mind, after you set it, otherwise you will not be able to reedit the workbook, and that will bring you a lot of inconvenience.

2. Besides, users could set multiple editable ranges, and you could set different passwords for different ranges. And let different authorized people edit in different ranges. For example, in the “Employee Info” workbook, you could set different editable ranges for different departments, such as Human Resource, Business, or Sales department. So that different department can only edit in their relative ranges.