How to: Set and Clear Workbook Passwords

Applies to
The information in this topic applies only to the specified Visual Studio Tools for Office projects and versions of Microsoft Office. Project type Document-level projects Application-level projects Microsoft Office version Excel 2003 Excel 2007 For more information, see Features Available by Application and Project Type.

Create a password to restrict access to a workbook. The following examples set the workbook's password. To clear the password, set the password to an empty string.

Setting a Password in a Document-Level Customization

To set a password

• Set the password property of ThisWorkbook to a string provided by the user.

  Private Sub SetPassword()
      Dim password As String 
      Dim confirmPassword As String
  
      password = Me.Application.InputBox("Enter the new password:").ToString()
      confirmPassword = Me.Application.InputBox("Confirm the password:").ToString()
  
      If password <> confirmPassword Then
          MessageBox.Show("The passwords you typed do not match.")
          Globals.ThisWorkbook.Password = "" 
      Else
          Globals.ThisWorkbook.Password = password
      End If 
  End Sub
  

  private void SetPassword() 
  {
      string password = this.Application.InputBox("Enter the new password:",
          missing, missing, missing, missing, missing, missing, missing).ToString();
  
      string confirmPassword = this.Application.InputBox("Confirm the password:", 
          missing, missing, missing, missing, missing, missing, missing).ToString(); 
  
      if (password != confirmPassword)
      {
          MessageBox.Show("The passwords you typed do not match.");
          Globals.ThisWorkbook.Password = "";
      }
      else
      {
          Globals.ThisWorkbook.Password = password;
      } 
  }
  

Setting a Password in an Application-Level Add-In

To set a password for the active workbook

• Set the Password property of the _Workbook class to a string provided by the user. To use this example, run the code from the ThisAddIn class in your project.

  Private Sub SetPassword()
      Dim password As String 
      Dim confirmPassword As String
  
      password = Me.Application.InputBox("Enter the new password:").ToString()
      confirmPassword = Me.Application.InputBox("Confirm the password:").ToString()
  
      If password <> confirmPassword Then
          System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("The passwords you typed do not match.")
          Me.Application.ActiveWorkbook.Password = "" 
      Else 
          Me.Application.ActiveWorkbook.Password = password
      End If 
  End Sub
  

  private void SetPassword()
  {
      string password = this.Application.InputBox("Enter the new password:",
          missing, missing, missing, missing, missing, missing, missing).ToString();
  
      string confirmPassword = this.Application.InputBox("Confirm the password:",
          missing, missing, missing, missing, missing, missing, missing).ToString();
  
      if (password != confirmPassword)
      {
          System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show
              ("The passwords you typed do not match.");
          this.Application.ActiveWorkbook.Password = "";
      }
      else
      {
          this.Application.ActiveWorkbook.Password = password;
      }
  }
  

See Also

Tasks

How to: Protect Workbooks

How to: Protect Worksheets

Concepts

Working with Workbooks

Password Protection on Office Documents

Global Access to Objects in Visual Studio Tools for Office Projects

The Variable missing and Optional Parameters in Office Solutions

Change History

Date	History	Reason
July 2008	Added a code example that can be used in an application-level add-in.	Customer feedback.