How to lock or protect cells after data entry or input in Excel?

Supposing you have a worksheet and just a certain range of blank cells needs data entry, and after finishing inputting data, you need the cells to be locked automatically in order to prevent changes again. How can you achieve this? This article can help you.

Lock or protect cells after data entry or input with VBA code

Lock or protect cells after data entry or input with VBA code

For example, the certain range of blank cells is A1:F8. Please do as follows to lock these cells after data entry in Excel.

1. Please unlock this range first by selecting the cells, right-clicking, then choosing Format Cells in the right-clicking menu, and in the Format Cells dialog box, unchecking the Locked box under the protection tab, and finally clicking the OK button. See screenshot:

2. Click Review > Protect Sheet. And specify a password to protect this worksheet.

3. Right click the sheet tab, select View Code from the right-clicking menu. Then copy and paste the below VBA code into the Code window. See screenshot:

VBA code: Lock or protect cells after data entry or input

Dim mRg As Range
Dim mStr As String

Private Sub Worksheet_BeforeDoubleClick(ByVal Target As Range, Cancel As Boolean)
If Not Intersect(Range("A1:F8"), Target) Is Nothing Then
    Set mRg = Target.Item(1)
    mStr = mRg.Value
End If
End Sub
Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
    Dim xRg As Range
    On Error Resume Next
    Set xRg = Intersect(Range("A1:F8"), Target)
    If xRg Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
    Target.Worksheet.Unprotect Password:="123"
    If xRg.Value <> mStr Then xRg.Locked = True
    Target.Worksheet.Protect Password:="123" 
End Sub
Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
If Not Intersect(Range("A1:F8"), Target) Is Nothing Then
    Set mRg = Target.Item(1)
     mStr = mRg.Value
End If
End Sub

Note: In the code, “A1:F8” is the range where you need to input data; and “123” is the password for the protected worksheet. Please change them as you need.

4. Press Alt + Q keys simultaneously to close the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

After finishing entering data to the cells of range A1:F8, they will be locked automatically. And you will get a prompt dialog box if you try to change any cell content of this range. See screenshot:

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• How to lock or unlock cells based on values in another cell in Excel?
• How to lock picture/image to or inside cell in Excel?