Cannot modify cells in unprotected cells in a protected worksheet.

Hi Mike C!

Thank you for writing to the Microsoft Answer Community Forum. I am Shakiru, an independent advisor and a user like you, and I am glad to be helping you out today.

When you protect a range in Excel, by default all the cells in the worksheet become locked. This means that even the cells that are not included in the protected range or you use the "Allow edit range" feature becomes read-only and cannot be modified.

To allow changes to the unprotected cells, you need to make sure that these cells are unlocked before protecting the range. Here's how you can do it:

1. Use the "Allow edit ranges" features: Unprotect the entire Sheet> Select the ranges of cells you want to unlock> Click on Review> Select "Allow edit ranges"> Click on protect button and enable protection of sheet> Click on Ok> Click on Apply> now you can edit the selected ranges.

see the image below:

Alternatively: * Select the cells that you want to leave unlocked. * Right-click on the selection and choose "Format Cells" from the context menu. * In the Format Cells dialog box, go to the "Protection" tab and uncheck the "Locked" checkbox. * Click "OK" to close the dialog box. * Select the range that you want to protect. * Right-click on the selection and choose "Format Cells" from the context menu. * In the Format Cells dialog box, go to the "Protection" tab and check the "Locked" checkbox. * Click "OK" to close the dialog box. * Finally, go to the "Review" tab in the Excel ribbon and click on "Protect Sheet". * In the "Protect Sheet" dialog box, set a password if you want to restrict access to the protected range, then uncheck the "Select locked cells" checkbox. *Click "OK" to close the dialog box and protect the sheet.

Kind Regards, Shakiru

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In addition to the above, I use Windows 11. Mike