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How to: Protect Workbooks

You can protect a Microsoft Office Excel workbook so that users cannot add or delete worksheets, and also unprotect the workbook programmatically. You can optionally specify a password, indicate whether you want the structure protected (so users cannot move sheets around), and indicate whether you want the workbook's windows protected.

Applies to: The information in this topic applies to document-level projects and application-level projects for Excel 2007 and Excel 2010. For more information, see Features Available by Office Application and Project Type.

Protecting a workbook does not stop users from editing cells. To protect the data, you must protect the worksheets. For more information, see How to: Protect Worksheets.

The following code examples use a variable to contain a password that is obtained from the user.

Protecting a Workbook That Is Part of a Document-Level Customization

To protect a workbook

  • Call the Protect method of the workbook and include a password. To use the following code example, run it in the ThisWorkbook class, not in a sheet class.

    Me.Protect(getPasswordFromUser)
    
    this.Protect(getPasswordFromUser, missing, missing);
    

To unprotect a workbook

  • Call the Unprotect method, passing a password if it is required. To use the following code example, run it in the ThisWorkbook class, not in a sheet class.

    Me.Unprotect(getPasswordFromUser)
    
    this.Unprotect(getPasswordFromUser);
    

Protecting a Workbook by Using an Application-Level Add-In

To protect a workbook

  • Call the Protect method of the workbook and include a password. This code example uses the active workbook. To use this example, run the code from the ThisAddIn class in your project.

    Me.Application.ActiveWorkbook.Unprotect(getPasswordFromUser)
    
    this.Application.ActiveWorkbook.Protect(getPasswordFromUser, missing, missing);
    

To unprotect a workbook

  • Call the Unprotect method of the active workbook, passing a password if it is required. To use this example, run the code from the ThisAddIn class in your project.

    Me.Application.ActiveWorkbook.Protect(getPasswordFromUser)
    
    this.Application.ActiveWorkbook.Unprotect(getPasswordFromUser);
    

See Also

Tasks

How to: Set and Clear Workbook Passwords

How to: Protect Worksheets

How to: Hide Worksheets

Concepts

Working with Workbooks

Optional Parameters in Office Solutions