Microsoft Excel is a powerful spreadsheet tool; it is capable of processing large amounts of data, supports macros, and supports a large, diverse number of mathematical and statistical formulas. To that end, it is often used instead of a database because it is easier to use and not many people know how a database works.
Password protect Excel file
Regardless of the type of data stored in an Excel file, you may need to password protect it. To that end, Microsoft Excel has the same document management features as other Microsoft 365 applications. The ability to install password protection.
How to password protect an Excel file
Password protection is available on both Mac and Windows versions of Excel. It’s a very old feature so even if your version of Office or Microsoft Office is many years old, you can still add password protection.
On Windows 10 (or older / newer)
- Open the Excel file to which you want to add password protection.
- Go to File> Info.
- Select Workbook Protection.
- Select Encrypt with password.
- Enter the password you want to use, then confirm the password.
- Click Ok and the password will be set.
Air macOS;
- Open the Excel file to which you want to add password protection.
- Go to File> Passwords.
- Enter the password you want to use, then confirm it.
- Click Ok and the password will be set.
Getting over password protected files
The password you set for an Excel file cannot be recovered, even on the system on which you installed it. It is not connected to your Microsoft account in any way and if you forget it, Microsoft cannot help.
There may be tools that help to crack the password but how effective they are is largely dependent on the tools. Microsoft generally discourages users from entering sensitive information in password-protected Excel spreadsheets (or Word documents), so it is possible that the password may be cracked by the right machine.
Conclusion
If you choose to password protect an Excel file, you need to figure out a secure way to share the password if you plan to share the file. Even if you have uploaded the file to a shared OneDrive folder, everyone who has access to the folder must get the password of the file to open it. The password is not affiliated in any way with any online account or sharing feature that Excel or OneDrive has. On that note, be sure to use a password that you do not use for your personal accounts.
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