
How to Lock Cells in Excel
Every Excel cell is locked by default, but that setting does nothing until you protect the sheet. Here's the two-step process to keep specific cells editable.
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7 articles

Every Excel cell is locked by default, but that setting does nothing until you protect the sheet. Here's the two-step process to keep specific cells editable.

Excel's View tab has one Freeze Panes menu that locks the top row, the first column, or any block of rows and columns you pick while the rest scrolls.

Learn how to wrap text in Excel with the Wrap Text button, add a manual line break with Alt+Enter, and fix cells where wrapped text still gets cut off.

Learn how to build an Excel drop-down list with Data Validation, using typed items or a cell range, plus how to edit it later and add error alerts.

Use the Data tab's Remove Duplicates tool to delete repeat rows, and see why highlighting them with Conditional Formatting first is the safer move.

Step-by-step guide to building a PivotTable in Excel: insert it, drag fields into Rows, Columns, and Values, switch Sum to Count, and refresh after edits.

Learn the exact VLOOKUP syntax, see a real example, and fix the #N/A errors that trip up almost everyone the first time they use it.