Excel spreadsheet experts - Password protection for Excel worksheets

Excel has built in password protection that you can use to encrypt the XL file.   However, if you are going to zip a large file, you should password protect the zipped file and NOT the XL file.  When you encrypt XL files with a password, they do not compress (zip) very well.

Here is the method for password protecting an Excel file using built in encryption:

From the Excel menu, select     File.....Save As....Tools....General Options.....Password to open ****** and then save the file.  A password is now required to open and view the file. 

Some notes on passwords:  Generally,  longer passwords are more desirable.  Consider using an entire sentence for your password if the data is very sensitive. This makes them much tougher to break by programs using a brute force technique.  It is also desirable to have a combination of lower case and upper case letters, and possibly even numbers or other uncommonly used keyboard characters.   Of course, make sure that you will be able to remember the password you choose.

Also, you should know that password protection is not perfect.  Programs are available that can quickly break the passwords for many different programs.

Excel spreadsheet experts, and password protection for Excel worksheets

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