Skip to main content

Kutools for Office — One Suite. Five Tools. Get More Done.

How to protect worksheet's formatting only in Excel?

Author Xiaoyang Last modified

Most of us may know how to protect worksheet contents not to be changed, but here, I want others can be able to change the cell values or type in numbers or text, but not mess up the cell formatting which I have applied, such as the Fonts, Background colors and so on. How do you protect the formatting of the worksheet without regarding for the contents?


Protect formatting of the worksheet with Excel feature

Supposing I have applied the formatting to the range cells as following screenshot shows, and now I will talk about how to protect worksheet's formatting only step by step:
sample data

1. Select the range cells that you want others to be able to edit, and then right click and choose Format Cells from the context menu, see screenshot:
choose Format Cells from the context menu

2. In the Format Cells dialog box, click Protection tab, and uncheck the Locked option. See screenshot:
uncheck the Locked option in the dialog box

3. Click OK to close the dialog box.

4. If you need to allow others to edit multiple ranges in this worksheet, please repeat above step 1-4 as you need.

5. Go on to click Review > Protect Sheet to protect the worksheet, see screenshot:
click Review > Protect Sheet to protect the worksheet

6. And in the popped out dialog box, make sure the Format cells is unchecked (it is not checked by default), and you needn't change any information in the dialog box, see screenshot:
type and retype the password

7. Then click OK, and all the selected cells content can be edited as your need, but the cell formatting can't be modified.

Note: If you want to set a password to protect the sheet, you can enter the password as your need, but if you needn't, just only click OK button in the Protect Sheet dialog box.


Protect worksheet's formatting only with Kutools for Excel

If you have Kutools for Excel installed, you can simplify steps to protect current worksheet’s formatting only. Please do as follows:

Kutools for Excel offers over 300 advanced features to streamline complex tasks, boosting creativity and efficiency. Itegarate with AI capabilities, Kutools automates tasks with precision, making data management effortless. Detailed information of Kutools for Excel...         Free trial...

1. Select multiple ranges that you will allow other to edit, and click the Kutools Plus > Worksheet Design to activate the Design tab, and then click the Unlock Cells button on the Design tab. See screenshot:
Note: Holding the Ctrl keys, you can select multiple non-adjacent ranges by selecting one by one.
click Worksheet Design to activate the Design tab

click the Unlock Cells button

Then a dialog box pops out and reminders you selected ranges have been unlocked. Just close it.

2. Click the Design > Protect Sheet or (Review > Protect Sheet) to protect current worksheet.

3. In the opening Protect Sheet dialog box, enter your password, and remember not to check the Format Cells option, and click the OK button. Next reenter your password in the Confirm Password dialog box, and click the OK button.
type and retype the password

Kutools for Excel - Supercharge Excel with over 300 essential tools. Enjoy permanently free AI features! Get It Now


Demo: protect worksheet’s formatting only in Excel

 

Quickly mass password protect multiple/all worksheets in Excel

Normally Excel's Protect Sheet feature can only protect active sheet. However, Kutools for Excel's Protect Worksheet utility enables to mass protect multiple (or all) worksheets with same password by only 2 steps.


protect multiple sheets by kutools

Kutools for Excel - Supercharge Excel with over 300 essential tools. Enjoy permanently free AI features! Get It Now

Best Office Productivity Tools

🤖 Kutools AI Aide: Revolutionize data analysis based on: Intelligent Execution   |  Generate Code  |  Create Custom Formulas  |  Analyze Data and Generate Charts  |  Invoke Kutools Functions
Popular Features: Find, Highlight or Identify Duplicates   |  Delete Blank Rows   |  Combine Columns or Cells without Losing Data   |   Round without Formula ...
Super Lookup: Multiple Criteria VLookup    Multiple Value VLookup  |   VLookup Across Multiple Sheets   |   Fuzzy Lookup ....
Advanced Drop-down List: Quickly Create Drop Down List   |  Dependent Drop Down List   |  Multi-select Drop Down List ....
Column Manager: Add a Specific Number of Columns  |  Move Columns  |  Toggle Visibility Status of Hidden Columns  |  Compare Ranges & Columns ...
Featured Features: Grid Focus   |  Design View   |   Big Formula Bar    Workbook & Sheet Manager   |  Resource Library (Auto Text)   |  Date Picker   |  Combine Worksheets   |  Encrypt/Decrypt Cells    Send Emails by List   |  Super Filter   |   Special Filter (filter bold/italic/strikethrough...) ...
Top 15 Toolsets12 Text Tools (Add Text, Remove Characters, ...)   |   50+ Chart Types (Gantt Chart, ...)   |   40+ Practical Formulas (Calculate age based on birthday, ...)   |   19 Insertion Tools (Insert QR Code, Insert Picture from Path, ...)   |   12 Conversion Tools (Numbers to Words, Currency Conversion, ...)   |   7 Merge & Split Tools (Advanced Combine Rows, Split Cells, ...)   |   ... and more
Use Kutools in your preferred language – supports English, Spanish, German, French, Chinese, and 40+ others!

Supercharge Your Excel Skills with Kutools for Excel, and Experience Efficiency Like Never Before. Kutools for Excel Offers Over 300 Advanced Features to Boost Productivity and Save Time.  Click Here to Get The Feature You Need The Most...


Office Tab Brings Tabbed interface to Office, and Make Your Work Much Easier

  • Enable tabbed editing and reading in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Access, Visio and Project.
  • Open and create multiple documents in new tabs of the same window, rather than in new windows.
  • Increases your productivity by 50%, and reduces hundreds of mouse clicks for you every day!

All Kutools add-ins. One installer

Kutools for Office suite bundles add-ins for Excel, Word, Outlook & PowerPoint plus Office Tab Pro, which is ideal for teams working across Office apps.

Excel Word Outlook Tabs PowerPoint
  • All-in-one suite — Excel, Word, Outlook & PowerPoint add-ins + Office Tab Pro
  • One installer, one license — set up in minutes (MSI-ready)
  • Works better together — streamlined productivity across Office apps
  • 30-day full-featured trial — no registration, no credit card
  • Best value — save vs buying individual add-in