Password Types

Have you ever wondered that there can be types of passwords just like types of files? Is it possible? Yes it is. MS Excel is equipped with five types of password locking with which you can protect your worksheets. This means you can secure your MS Excel worksheet with 5 different password security measures and prevent unauthorized access to the worksheet.

This article targets to those users who need to secure excel worksheets for various reasons. Beneficial for people in finance field as MS Excel is widely used tool by accountants, charted accountants, brokers, stenos and every other individual who need to store and display data in a hierarchical order.

The Excel password types are:

Password to open the Worksheet
Password for Modifications
VBA Modules
Worksheet Password
Workbook Password


1.) Password to open the Worksheet:

You can assign passwords to the excel worksheets and prevent any individual from accessing it. To assign password to your .xls file:

Open the .xls document, which you want to password protect.
Select the Save As option from the File menu.
Click the Tools tab on the top of the Save As window and select the General Options… option.
The Save Options window will be displayed, where you can enter the desired password in the Password to open text box.

If any unauthorized individual tries to open the worksheet, Microsoft Excel will ask to enter the password. If the password is incorrect the sheet will not open.

2.) Password for Modifications:

This option works similarly as the first one. As the password was assigned to open the excel worksheet, password to modify the excel worksheet can also be assigned in the similar way.

Open the .xls document, which you want to password protect.
Select the Save As option from the File menu.
Click the Tools tab on the top of the Save As window and select the General Options… option.
The Save Options window will be displayed, where you can enter the desired password in the Password to modify text box.

Only authorized individuals who know the password can modify the document otherwise he can only view the read-only copy of the password protected worksheet. This kind of protection helps to protect the document getting modified by other people, thus saving the original data which you had saved before leaving your desk.

3.) VBA Modules:

The excel worksheet can contain VBA modules with added macros in the file. This Visual Basic for Application module can also be password protected. To password protect, perform the following:

Select the VBA module and right-click the mouse button.
Select the VBA Project Properties… option.
Click the Protection tab.
In this window, check the Lock project for viewing option and assign password in the Password to view project properties dialogue box.
Click OK.

The VBA module is now protected with password and secure from any unauthorized use.

4.) Worksheet Password:

There can be several worksheets in a single .xls file like Sheet 1, Sheet 2 and so on. You can password protect them too. To assign password to any current worksheet perform the following:

Click the Tools menu
Select the Protection > Protect Sheet option. The Protect Sheet window will be displayed.
Select amongst the number of options for your worksheet. (These options depend on the working version of MS Excel; I am working in MS Excel 2003)
After selecting the options you can assign password to the worksheet.

5.) Workbook Password:

Like Worksheets, excel workbooks can also be protected in the similar way of protecting worksheets.
Click the Tools menu
Select the Protection > Protect Workbook option. The Protect Workbook window will be displayed.
Select both or appropriate option from Structure and Windows and assign the password.

You can also try this:

Click the Tools menu.
Select the Protection > Protect and Share Workbook… option. The Protect Shared Workbook window will be displayed. This enables you to share the workbook with track changes.
Check the Sharing with track changes option. This would activate the Password text box.
Assign password in the Password text box.

This kind of password protection helps at the time of sharing the excel worksheets. This would restrict other user from making changes in the document and retains the track changes in the sheet.

As there are 5 different options to protect the excel worksheet with passwords, there can be times when you tend to forget or lose the assigned password or the excel document can get corrupt due to virus attacks, accidental deletions, power outages etc. There are many excel password recovery tools to recover the lost / forgotten passwords. These software tools can easily restore the forgotten passwords of excel files. But if in case the MS Excel file gets corrupt, you can try the FREE demo version of  Kernel Recovery for Excel , a corrupt excel file recovery software which easily recovers and repairs the damaged worksheets and extracts cell data, formulas, charts, images, hyperlinks etc. If the Excel repair software displays your lost data then you can purchase Full version of the excel file repair software.