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How to protect or lock cell values based on background color?

Author: Xiaoyang Last Modified: 2020-07-24

Supposing, I have a large worksheet and multiple cells are filled with different background colors, now, I want to lock or protect the cells based on certain filled color, such as locking or protecting all cells with red color. Are there any good methods to deal with this task in Excel?

Protect or lock cell values based on background color with VBA code


arrow blue right bubble Protect or lock cell values based on background color with VBA code

For example, I want to lock and protect all red cells, in order to prevent other users from modifying these cell values, the following VBA code can solve this job for you, please do as this:

1. Hold down the ALT + F11 keys to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

2. Click Insert > Module, and paste the following code in the Module Window.

VBA code: Protect or lock cell values based on color:

Sub lockcellsbycolor()
'Updateby Extendoffice
    Dim colorIndex As Integer
    colorIndex = 3
    Dim xRg As Range
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    For Each xRg In ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Cells
        Dim color As Long
        color = xRg.Interior.colorIndex
        If (color = colorIndex) Then
            xRg.Locked = True
        Else
            xRg.Locked = False
        End If
    Next xRg
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
    MsgBox "All specified color cells have been locked!", vbInformation, "Kutools for Excel"
End Sub

Note: In the above code, the number 3 within the colorIndex = 3 script indicates the red color cells I want to lock, you can change it to other color index which you want to lock.

3. Then press F5 key to run this code, and only red color cells have been locked, other cells are unlocked in the used range of active sheet, see screenshot:

doc lock cells by color 1

4. If you want to protect them from being modified by other users, you just need to apply the Protect Sheet feature to protect this worksheet.

Tips: To get the color index number, you can apply the following User Defined Function:

Function GetColor(x As Range) As Integer
GetColor = x.Interior.ColorIndex
End Function

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Comments (4)
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This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Bonjour, y a t il une astuce quand la feuille est protégée d utiliser le panel des couleurs dans l onglet accueil pour mettre un fond de couleur sur les cases non protégés merci
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
How do you run this in a loop, so that all cells in all sheets that are not the specific color will be protected?
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Can this be applied to a sheet with merged cells and can it recognize a cell color that is based on conditional formatting? I want to lock cells that are color code 15 and those cells are color code 15 based on a conditional format. Thank you in advance.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Bonjour,
j'aurais voulu savoir si il était possible de faire la même chose mais avec la valeur de la cellule plutôt que la couleur?
Par exemple: Verrouiller toutes les cellules dont la valeur est "-" de la plage B2:E25.

Merci d'avance
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