Sheet Protection

Sheet Protection lets you lock a sheet so that only designated unlocked cells can be edited. This is useful for creating templates where users should only fill in certain fields.

Opening the Protection Dialog

Open via Tools > Sheet Protection in the menu bar. A modal dialog appears with protection options for the active sheet.

How It Works

1. Lock or Unlock Cells

Before enabling protection, decide which cells should be editable:

• Select the cells you want to lock (or unlock).
• In the protection dialog, click Lock Selected Cells or Unlock Selected Cells.
• Locked cells display a status confirmation.

By default, newly created cells do not have explicit protection set.

2. Enable Sheet Protection

Check Protect this sheet and click Apply.

When protection is enabled:

• Locked cells cannot be edited. Attempting to edit shows a "Cell is protected" message in the status bar.
• Unlocked cells remain fully editable.
• The protection state is checked before the cell editor opens, preventing any input to protected cells.

3. Disable Protection

Uncheck the checkbox and click Apply to remove sheet protection. All cells become editable again regardless of their locked state.

Protection Scope

• Protection is per-sheet. Each sheet has its own protection enabled/disabled flag.
• Cell lock state is stored per cell and persists across saves.
• The protection setting is saved as part of the workbook data.

Notes

• Sheet protection in OpenSheets does not currently use a password. It prevents casual editing but is not a security mechanism.
• Formulas in protected cells still recalculate normally; only user input is blocked.