How do you enable editing in Excel protected?

When opening Excel spreadsheets from unknown sources, a feature in Excel called Protected View shields you from potential risks. This is great, but to work on the document, you will need to switch to editing mode.

How to Switch to Editing Mode

Protected View is switched on by default. So whenever you open a file that originated from a website or that you received via email, you are taken to Protected View.

The message bar will appear along the top of the document and offer you the chance to enable editing. Click the “Enable Editing” button.

The document is now opened as read-only with some content disabled.

Save the document to another location to be able to work on it effectively.

Why Use the Protected View?

Protected View protects you from malware, viruses, and threats that you can be exposed to when opening Excel files from unknown sources. These sources include a website, email attachments, and other unsafe locations such as shared drives.

If you are just viewing the spreadsheet, you will not need editing mode and can happily work with the document while in Protected View.

Can I Disable Protected View?

Yes, but you should check with your IT team or network administrator before doing this as it does expose you to outside threats.

To disable protected view, Click “File” from the taskbar and then select “Options.” Next, choose the “Trust Center” category and then click the “Trust Center Settings” button.

Select the “Protected View” category.

There are three settings here that you could disable: files originating from the Internet, unsafe locations, or Outlook attachments. You can disable all three if you do not want Protected View to intervene at all in the future.

Protected View is a useful feature to help protect users from potential threats when opening documents from unknown sources. This is very common when working with Excel on mobile devices and accessing documents when in public locations.

However, most of the time, these spreadsheets are safe. Fortunately, Microsoft makes it relatively easy to switch into Editing Mode.

Microsoft has provided satisfactory features that ensure the safety and protection of your files from different viruses. One of them is “Protected View”, which makes sure that your file is safe and nobody else can make changes to it. Once in a lifetime, you probably would have encountered a Protected View Prompt after opening an Excel file.

This is a way that Excel tells you no virus can damage or delete the file. It usually happens when the source file is unknown. If you know the source file, you can simply press the Enable Editing button given on top of the file. Doing so will ensure editing the file whenever you need to.

Protected View at times can be the most annoying thing that appears on the screen when you want to make some changes to the file. To edit the file safely, you will have to disable the Protected View. You must be thinking about how to enable editing in Excel when the Protected View feature is active?

Why Cannot I Edit the Excel Spreadsheet?

Other than the Protected View feature, there are reasons that don’t let you edit the file. Let’s have a look at other reasons. 

The Excel File is in Read Only Mode

As you open an Excel file, if you see a MARKED AS FINAL prompt right in front of the screen, it clearly tells you that this is the final document and is saved in read-only mode. No one can edit the file because it is un-editable. 

The Excel Spreadsheet is Locked with Password

Another reason that leaves you unable to edit the Excel file is when the cell or Excel sheet is locked with a protection password. You will not be able to make changes to the file unless you disable the protection mode. Double-clicking the cell for editing purposes will pop a message “The cell or chart you are trying to change is on a protected sheet. To make a change, unprotect the sheet.”

How to Enable Editing in Excel

Here in this post, you will find some useful tricks to enable editing in Excel files.

Directly From Trust Center Settings

When the file is in read-only mode, you need to unprotect it, so that you can make further editing easily. You can do it directly through program settings. To disable the protected view, follow the steps given below:

Open Microsoft Excel and click on the File menu option.

Now, click on Options given on the left side menu.

Choose the Trust Center option given on the left side of the PowerPoint Options window.

Click on Trust Center Settings button.

Now, select Protected View given on the left side menu, from the Trust Center Settings window.

Uncheck these options: “Enable Protected View for files originating from the Internet”, “Enable Protected View for files located in potentially unsafe locations”, and “Enable Protected View for Outlook attachments”

Now, click OK in the Excel Options window.

This is how to enable editing in Excel using Trust Center Settings.

When the Excel File is Marked as Final

When you have downloaded a file from the internet, you may have to encounter with read-only mode issue. A yellow notification “Marked as Final” will appear on top of the Excel worksheet, when the file is in read-only mode.

To get yourself out of this situation, simply click the “Edit Anyway” button given right beside the MARKED AS FINAL notification on top of the sheet.

When the Excel File is Recommended as Read Only

If the file is in read-only mode when you open it, usually a message will appear asking you to open the file in read-only mode. If you select “Yes”, it will open as read-only and you cannot make editing into the file. On the other hand, if you want to disable the read-only mode, choose “No”.

If you need to do away with the read-only recommended feature, follow the steps:

Open the Excel file recommended as read-only and choose “No” from the pop-up window.

Open the Excel file recommended as read-only and choose “No”.

Move to the “File” option and click on “Save As” to open the file directory. At the bottom of the file explorer screen, hit the drop-down icon given besides “Tools” and choose “General Options”.

From the “General Options” menu, uncheck the “Read-only recommended” box. Press “OK” to enable editing in the Excel file.

When the Excel File is Protected with Modifying Password

You will see a pop-up message asking you to enter the password when your file is protected by modifying the password. You must be thinking about whether you can open the file or not when you don’t know the password.

Fortunately, you can easily enable the editing mode without knowing the correct password. If you don’t know the password, open the file in the read-only mode and press “CTRL+A” to select the whole worksheet. Now, press “CTRL+C” and “CTRL+V” to copy and paste the content to a new worksheet. Make as many changes as you want in the new worksheet. Changing the worksheet is as simple as that.

On the other hand, if you know the password, simply type it. Go to the “File” and click on “Save As”. Delete the password in the “Password to modify” field given in the “General Options” menu. Now, the file is without any protection. Whenever you will open this Excel file, it will not ask you to enter the password because it is not protected now.

To Sum Up

Now, you fully have an idea of how to enable editing in Excel. You can simply follow the methods given above to make any sort of changes in the Excel file whenever you need to. Each method is worthy enough to practice.

Use the methods provided in this article to edit your protected Excel file. Keep practicing new features and continue sharing useful information with others.

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