Password Protect Excel Files

How to keep an Excel workbook safe by encrypting it with a password.

This will make it so that a user cannot open the Excel file unless they have the correct password.

Steps to Encrypt a Workbook with a Password in Excel

1. Click the File button ( in Excel 2007 this is the Office button):
   
2. Go to the Info tab (in Excel 2007 this is the Prepare tab):
   
3. Click the Protect Workbook button (in Excel 2007 this is the Encrypt Document button):
   
4.  Click the Encrypt with Password option (this step not needed for Excel 2007):
   
5.  Enter the password that you want to use to open the Excel file and hit OK:
   
6. You will need to re-enter the password and hit OK again:
   
7. That's it:
   

Steps to Encrypt an Excel 2003 File

Tools > Options > Security tab > Password to Open > enter the desired password required to open the Excel file.

Notes

USE A PASSWORD THAT YOU WILL REMEMBER!!!

Do not come to us to ask for help removing the password from an Excel file!!!

Sample Workbook

We included a sample Excel file for this tutorial that has been password protected.  You can download it and see what it's like to use this feature.

The password is: 123456

(do not ever use this as a password for your files - this was done here to make it easy for you to use)