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By password-protecting your Excel workbook, you can prevent unauthorized users from opening and/or editing the workbook. You set a password for opening the workbook file when you're dealing with a spreadsheet whose data is of a sufficiently sensitive nature that only a certain group of people in the company should have access to it (such as spreadsheets dealing with personal information and salaries). Of course, after you set the password required in order to open the workbook, you must supply this password to those people who need access in order to make it possible for them to open the workbook file.
You set a password for modifying the workbook when you're dealing with a spreadsheet whose data needs to be viewed and printed by different users, none of whom are authorized to make changes to any of the entries. For example, you might assign a password for modifying to a workbook before distributing it companywide, after the workbook's been through a complete editing and review cycle and all the suggested changes have been merged.
If you're dealing with a spreadsheet whose data is of a sensitive nature and should not be modified by anyone who's authorized to open it, you need to set both a password for opening and a password for modifying the workbook file. You assign either one or both of these types of passwords to a workbook file at the time you save it with the File --> Save As command on the Excel menu bar.
When you choose this command (or choose the File --> Save command for a new file that's never been saved before), Excel opens the Save As dialog box. You can then set the password to open and/or the password to modify the file by taking these steps:
1. Click the Tools pop-up button in the Save As dialog box and then click General Options on the pop-up menu.
Doing this opens the Save Options dialog box where you can enter a password to open and/or a password to modify. When entering a password, it can be up to 255 characters long and consist of a combination of letters and numbers with spaces. When using letters, however, keep in mind that passwords are case-sensitive, so opensesame and OpenSesame are not the same password because of the different use of upper- and lowercase letters.
 | When entering a password, make sure that you don't enter something that you can't easily reproduce or, for heaven's sake, that you can't remember. You must be able to immediately reproduce the password in order to assign it, and you must be able to reproduce it later if you ever want to be able to open or change the darned workbook ever again. |
2. (Optional) If you want to assign a password to open the file, type the password (up to 255 characters maximum) in Password to Open text box.
As you type the password, Excel masks the actual characters you type by rendering them as asterisks (*) in the text box.
By default, Excel assigns an Office 97/2000 Compatible type encryption when you assign a password to open the file. You can use the Advanced button to assign another type of encryption for password-protecting the opening of the file. You should not, however, fool with these options unless you know what you're doing or have been instructed to use another type by someone in your IT department.
If you decide to assign a password for opening and modifying the workbook at the same time, proceed to Step 3. Otherwise, skip to Step 4.
When entering the password for modifying the workbook, you want to assign a password that's different from the one you just assigned for opening the file (if you did assign a password for opening the file in this step).
3. (Optional) If you want to assign a password for modifying the workbook, click the Password to Modify text box and then type the password for modifying the workbook there.
Before you can assign a password to open the file and/or to modify the file, you must confirm the password by reproducing it in a Confirm Password dialog box exactly as you originally entered it.
4. Click the OK button.
Doing this closes the Save Options dialog box and opens a Confirm Password dialog box, where you need to exactly reproduce the password. If you just entered a password in the Password to Open text box, you need to reenter this password in the Confirm Password dialog box. If you just entered a password in the Password to Modify text box, you need only to reproduce this password in the Confirm Password dialog box. However, if you entered a password in both the Password to Open text box and the Password to Modify text box, you must reproduce those passwords. In the first Confirm Password dialog box, enter the password you entered in the Password to Open text box. Immediately after you click OK in the first Confirm Password dialog box, the second Confirm Password dialog box appears, where you reproduce the password you entered in the Password to Modify text box.
5. Type the password exactly as you entered it in the Password to Open text box (or Password to Modify text box, if you didn't use the Password to Open text box), and then click OK.
If your password does not match exactly (in both characters and case) the one you originally entered, Excel displays an alert dialog box, indicating that the confirmation password is not identical. When you click OK in this alert dialog box, Excel returns you to the original Save Options dialog box where you can do one of two things:
• Reenter the password in the original text box.
• Click the OK button to redisplay the Confirm Password dialog box, where you can try again to reproduce the original. (Make sure that you've not engaged the Caps Lock key by accident.)
If you assigned both a password to open the workbook and one to modify it, Excel displays a second Confirm Password dialog box as soon as you click OK in the first one and successfully reproduce the password to open the file. You then repeat Step 5, this time, exactly reproducing the password to modify the workbook before you click OK.
When you finish confirming the original password(s), you are ready to save the workbook in the Save As dialog box.
6. (Optional) If you want to save the password-protected version under a new filename or in a different folder, edit the name in the File Name text box and then select the new folder on the Save In drop-down list.
7. Click the Save button to save the workbook with the password to open and/or password to modify.
As soon as you do this, Excel saves the file if this is the first time you've saved it. If not, the program displays an alert dialog box indicating that the file you're saving already exists and asking you if you want to replace the existing file.
8. Click the Yes button if the alert dialog box that asks if you want to replace the existing file appears.
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