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How to make a workbook read only in Excel

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We have already seen how to How to make a presentation read only in Power Point. Similarly an excel workbook can be made read only using Excel Options. Listed below are the steps to make a workbook read only in Excel 2013 and Excel 2010

Click on the File menu –> Info menu

Protect Workbook in Excel 2013 and Excel 2010

Click on the Protect Workbook drop down arrow. This would display the following menu list

Mark workbook as final in Excel 2013 and Excel 2010

Click on the Mark as Final menu, the following dialog box would appear.

image

On selecting OK button the following confirmation box will be displayed.

Warning message when workbook marked as final in edited

By this way you can make an workbook in excel 2010 read only and prevent users from making any changes to the file.

Also See: Different ways to protect workbook in Excel 2013

Comments

40 responses to “How to make a workbook read only in Excel”

  1. Rosie Avatar
    Rosie

    Yes – but the spreadsheet still opens with the option to ‘edit anyway’. How do you make it ‘Read Only’, with a password required to edit?

    Reply
  2. Angel Avatar
    Angel

    You may have found your answer already but you can select “Protect current sheet” or “Protect workbook structure” to add a password to prevent people from editing without proper credentials.

    Reply
  3. David Harries Avatar
    David Harries

    I am stuck with saving my latest work books as ‘read-only’ even tho’ I do not want to. I have to save as Copy of and Copy of Copy of. I can’t get out of this. It is ridiculous!

    Reply
  4. Posts recap–Microsoft Excel 2010

    […] How to make a workbook read only in Excel 2010 […]

    Reply
  5. Jason Niemi Avatar
    Jason Niemi

    If you use this setting and have subtotals as part of your sheet, you cannot expand and collapse the subtotals. Unfortunately, that renders this setting useless for me.

    Reply
  6. Yayo Avatar
    Yayo

    This is actually downgrade of the previous version.
    I want to the old sec. settings back!

    Reply
  7. Markus Avatar
    Markus

    This new system of protecting your workbook e.g. making it a read only is ridiculous.

    Reply
  8. Jannine Avatar
    Jannine

    I now have 2 excel spreadsheets i work from everyday, adding to them both and making them available to other work colleagues. One was created with 2007 (read only-perfect) and the latest with 2010 which i have to lock so nothing happens to it. Why change something for ‘the better’ when it was perfect the way it was? This new system is, as Markus says, ridiculous.

    Reply
  9. Chris Avatar
    Chris

    You can still set a workbook with a read-only password in the traditional way in Excel 2010 – go to Save as, Tools, General options…

    Reply
  10. STEVEN Avatar
    STEVEN

    If you select Save as, a dialog box opens and you know the rest. There is no “tools”. Please be more explicite.

    Reply
  11. cindy Avatar
    cindy

    yes, it’s possible!!! Difficult to find, but possible!
    When you select save as, there is effectively a “tools” box, in the lower-left corner. then what you have to do is go to “general option” and put a password to protect your document!

    Reply
  12. Kevin Avatar
    Kevin

    Found Cindy’s solution. I knew I’d seen it before, but couldn’t find it again today. There may be a few things better in 2010, but there are 10x as many items that have been made worse, or harder to use. 2003 was a lot easier to use and didn’t require constantly clicking to the ribbon you actually need. Everything seems to take 5 clicks now instead of 1 or 2 before.

    And isn’t “help” in 2010 supposed to be helpful? There’s nothing more useless than Microsoft’s help.

    Reply
  13. mark Avatar
    mark

    thank you cindy you’ve made an old man very happy

    Reply
  14. Dana Avatar
    Dana

    I may have missed the answer, but I do NOT want this brand new spreadsheet I created today to be read only. I did not set it as a final version, I did not give it a password, I did not protect it in any way and yet it keeps making me save it with a new name. How do I turn this off?

    Reply
  15. kittu Avatar
    kittu

    How can give a coulour as a logic value.? I.e, to get a count, which are filled with a specific color.Please let me know…

    Reply
  16. Jacqueline Avatar
    Jacqueline

    I’m also frustraded with my workbook defaulting as read only and have the same question as Dana. How do I make my spreadsheet editable to others without it being renamed? When I go into File tab, it shows the permissions as anyone can change it. But it forces them to resave with a new name.

    Reply
  17. Billy Avatar
    Billy

    Hi Cindy,

    Thank You. Your method is the best

    Billy

    Reply
  18. Jean-Marie Sohier Avatar
    Jean-Marie Sohier

    Same problems. Bought at high cost Office 2010, for PC, downloaded. Had to buy second copy for my portable PC ! ! !
    Never has a migration been so hard to lose so much and gain so little (I haven’t found anything positive yet apart from joining the herd, but let us still believe there might be some progress).
    I cannot open my Access databases. My word and Excel open as read-only… Transferred all data on new PC. Saw nothing worked. Thanked God I still had old PC with XP and Office 2000, which became again “production”, while new PC is still demoted as “test environment”. For how long?

    Next stop Linux, free software or Apple. Why does Microsoft shoot itself in the foot, and us in the back, like this ? Hate them now. That plus the abysmal partnership between Bill Gates and Monsanto who forces Roundup down the planet’s tummies, pollutes our land with its seeds and highjacks intellectual rights on seeds !!!!!

    G G G R R R R R R R R ! ! ! !

    Reply
  19. Donna Gaffaney Avatar
    Donna Gaffaney

    I want to change my excel page from read only so that I can print it.

    Reply
  20. Edward Avatar
    Edward

    Good Morning,

    If you want to password protect your spreadsheet while still being able to have others view it as read only do the following:

    Open your current Excel Spreadsheet, go to file: Save As. This is going to cause a pop-up window to open. In the lower left hand corner of this window you will see a tools option. Click the drop down menu and select “General Options”. This will cause another pop up window to open, check the box that says “Password to Modify” key in your desired password, then key it in once more and save the spreadsheet. Reopen the spreadsheet, and now you will have the coveted read only function and a password to edit.

    Reply
  21. Jake Avatar
    Jake

    Edward – you are a star!!
    Works perfectly. :o))

    Reply
  22. Errol Avatar
    Errol

    Edward I have tried multiple times using the procedure you outline before reading your article. My comment is that it does essentially do so but there is one thing I do not like.
    It allows data to be changed but not saved apart from allocating a new file name.
    This would be much better if it was similar to a protected sheet where an attempt to change a protectred cell would bring up a warning immediately.
    What do you think.

    Reply
  23. Arthur Avatar
    Arthur

    I have tried a lot of the above suggestions. I have a Spreadsheet on a Shared Drive that I want everyone to have Read Only Access. I need to be able to edit the spreadsheet and so does one other person. When I open the spreadsheet I am prompted for a password or I can select to Read Only. When I try this on any other computer it opens the spreadsheet without giving the option to edit with a password. It goes straight to Read Only and does not allow editing or saving. Please help!!!

    Reply
  24. Ron Powell Avatar
    Ron Powell

    I want to password protect an Excel 2010 workbook as read only but allow certain users to be able to edit the worksheets. How do I achieve this? Please help.

    Reply
  25. Anand Vasudeva Avatar
    Anand Vasudeva

    Ron Powell – Open an XL – Try Save as option – Once a dialog box opens up to save it in a particular folder of your choice – you can see Tools button in the lower left hand corner (It is available in Windows for all versions of XL) – Click on Tools – Then click on General options and type password for modify and retype password for modify – Save it in a location of your choice – You are all set ——-

    Reply
  26. Different ways to protect workbook using Excel 2013

    […] as Final will let the readers know that the workbook is final and it has been made read-only. On selecting the Mark as Final option from the Protect Workbook, […]

    Reply
  27. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    Chris
    January 11, 2012 at 5:48 pm

    Perfect!! This is what i was looking for, good old fashioned ‘Read only’ access.

    Reply
  28. Lakkanna Avatar
    Lakkanna

    Great !!!

    Reply
  29. Post recap – Simple tutorials on Microsoft Excel 2010

    […] How to make a workbook read only in Excel 2010 […]

    Reply
  30. Jess Avatar
    Jess

    I have to type this, simply for my sanity…
    Kevin, dude, I so feel your pain. Office 2010 is absolutely incompetent, inefficient and stupid beyond stupidness. It is the worst thing to happen to me, and that includes my divorce. Microsoft can’t possibly be an ISO certified company as there is clearly no way that they can claim, based on the increasingly awful products they put out, that they are fulfilling their requirement to “continually improve”. Unless, perhaps, their ISO auditor has been living under a rock for 20+ years and was drunk while conducting their audit. Maybe I’m overly judgmental (though I doubt it) but it has become obvious to me that Microsoft is programmed and managed by people who must certainly be dangerously inebriated.
    But all I really know is that I want what those Microsoft programmers are having, and make it a double cuz I’m beginning to feel like I’m the only sober one left. (sigh) It boggles my sober mind that Microsoft is even in business.

    Reply
  31. Jess Avatar
    Jess

    Hello all. FYI… Cindy’s instructions only work to a point and same goes for the instructions at the top of this page. The Excel booklet/sheet is not actually accessible in Read Only format (*without* entering a password) if you follow either of those sets of steps. If you follow either of those sets of steps, when you go to open the workbook/sheet it REQUIRES the password and does NOT offer a Read Only option. YES… I DID check the “read only recommended” box. NO… I swear I am not high on anything right now (though I am beginning to wish I was). This is completely insane. Why is my version different than yours? Why is my outcome different than yours? This makes no sense. Does ANYONE know how to password protect 2010 docs so that people have the ***option*** of “Read Only” and the option to enter the password? Please, I beg you, test and confirm steps before posting solutions. If you have to enter a password to open the document then you have not successfully set the document up for Read Only access. I want people to be able to open, look-at and print the documents but not change them. I just know that I am not the only being on the planet who wants to do this. Sheesh! Why was doing this so incredibly easy in 2003 and so seemingly impossible, now, in the 2010 version?

    Reply
  32. Rshalf Avatar
    Rshalf

    This is what I want to do: I want my workbook to be read only for 15 people in my organization and to be editable for only 2. So I want to have most people open it as read only and two of us use a password to edit the same spreadsheet. We add names monthly, so I will never have a “final copy.” Your explanation says that I can only have a “final copy.” My Mac version will let me do this. Can I do it with Microsoft?

    Reply
  33. Stephanie Davies Avatar
    Stephanie Davies

    Thanks for the details above, this worked perfectly for me. Please can anyone advise if I make changes and save them down, will this update the data in the read-only versions or will the users have to re-open the file to keep checking for changes? Any way the read-only versions can be updated automatically or the users can be advised the changes have been made and to refresh?

    Reply
  34. arcog Avatar
    arcog

    To make an Excel 2010 file “Rad Only” in the useful-traditional way(..these kind of issues make you understand why Microsoft hasn’t been able to keep up with the tech firms…) just RIGHT CLICK the file name, go to PROPERTIES, and click on READ ONLY and APPLY.

    Reply
  35. Signi Avatar
    Signi

    How do you unprotect a document from read only that exists from a previous employee who is no longer here? thanks.

    Reply
    1. Ravi Shankar Avatar
      Ravi Shankar

      Hope this helps – http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj923033(v=office.15).aspx

      Reply
  36. Trang Houston Avatar
    Trang Houston

    To enable password protected Excel opened as READ ONLY in Excel 2010:

    1. Click File > Save As
    2. Click on button Tool > General Options at bottom of Save As window
    3. Specify what you want:
    ??Password to open
    Password to modify
    Read Only Recommended

    Reply
  37. Ssor Avatar
    Ssor

    I’m looking for some help virtually identical to the question posed by Rshalf above. I need for approx 20 users to be able to read-only a workbook but to allow only 2 users to make changes to the workbook. One of the those 2 users makes changes with no problem that everyone is able to see but the second user’s changes are only seen on his workbook.
    I’m grateful for any suggestions

    Reply
  38. Carolyn Avatar
    Carolyn

    I use a company shared website to upload/edit excel spreadsheets. It worked fine when I first used it andcould edit and save the spreadsheets with no problem. About 6 months ago this changed, even if I select edit workbook it still opens as read only. I am having to save it on my hard drive and upload everytime which gets confusing for all the other users on the company website. Please help!

    Reply
    1. Ravi Shankar Avatar
      Ravi Shankar

      Have your tried the following steps to make it editable. https://support.office.com/en-nz/article/Why-is-my-workbook-read-only-145a1a8b-5a3e-4b31-9889-fa854b27943b

      Reply

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