You may have workbooks with sensitive information that you don't
want others to see. Excel allows you to save a workbook so that a
password must be used to open or modify it.
- Excel 97: Click File, Save As. In the Save As dialog box click
the Options button.
Excel 2000 / Excel 2002: Click File, Save As. In the Save As
dialog box select Tools (from the toolbar) and General
Options.
- Type a password in the 'Password to open' box to prevent
others from opening the workbook without entering the password.
Type a password in the 'Password to modify' box to prevent a
user from making changes to the file. The user can still save
the file with a different name.
- If you select the 'Read-only recommended' option, the user
will be prompted to open the file as read-only unless changes
will be made. You can use this option without requiring a
password.
Keep in mind that this type of protection will keep most people
from accessing your workbook but it is not really secure. If
someone wants to access your data they can use one of the many
commercial password-breaking software programs available.
Caution: If you assign password protection to a workbook and then
forget the password, you cannot open the workbook, access its
data through links in another workbook, remove protection from
the workbook, or recover data from the workbook. Keep a list of
passwords and corresponding workbooks in a safe place.