Protecting or Unprotecting an Area
You can protect an area to prevent its editing or deletion, whether intentional or accidental.
To Protect an Area
1. Select an unprotected area that you want to protect. The area can be collapsed or expanded.
2. Right-click the 
or 
icon. A menu opens.
or icon. A menu opens.3. Click the Protect Area icon 
. The Protect Area dialog box opens.
. The Protect Area dialog box opens.4. To protect the area without a password:
a. Leave the Password (optional) and the Reenter password fields blank.
b. Click Protect Area to start area protection without a password.
The Protect Area dialog box closes, the string Protected Area appears above the top-left corner of the area.
5. To protect the area with a password:
a. Enter a password in the Password (optional) field, and reenter it in the Reenter password field.
b. Click Protect Area to start area protection with a password.
The Protect Area dialog box closes, and the string Password Protected Area appears above the top-left corner of the area.
To Unprotect an Area
1. Select a protected area that you want to unprotect. The area can be collapsed or expanded.
2. Right-click the or icon. A menu opens.
or icon. A menu opens.3. Click the Unprotect Area 
icon. The Unprotect Area dialog box opens.
icon. The Unprotect Area dialog box opens.4. When the area is password protected, enter the password in the Password field.
5. Click Unprotect Area to remove area protection.
The string Protected Area or Password Protected Area disappears from the top-left corner of the area.
Options Available While Protecting an Area
You can add a timestamp to an area, hide the area border, or lock the area display state.
• When Show timestamp is selected, the timestamp is displayed above the area according to the format defined by your system’s Region and Language dialog box. This timestamp is fixed and does not change when the worksheet containing the area is opened in a different time-zone. Therefore, you can use the timestamp to help colleagues in different time-zones identify a specific area in your shared worksheet.
• If the Show Area border is checked, it will be displayed when printing the worksheet. To change the display of your area borders, when the area is password protected, you must first unprotect the area.
• When you choose to lock the area display state, then the or icons are replaced by the 
icon. The display state is locked according to the selected option in the corresponding drop-down menu, either collapsed or expanded (for example, if the unprotected area is in the expanded state and you choose Collapsed from the Lock the area display state drop down menu, then the area is protected in the collapsed state). To re-expand or re-collapse your area, you must first unprotect it.
or icons are replaced by the icon. The display state is locked according to the selected option in the corresponding drop-down menu, either collapsed or expanded (for example, if the unprotected area is in the expanded state and you choose Collapsed from the Lock the area display state drop down menu, then the area is protected in the collapsed state). To re-expand or re-collapse your area, you must first unprotect it.The Lock the area display state checkbox is selected by default.