Want to protect an important Word document or Excel spreadsheet? Here's how to add a password, make documents read-only, and tap into other tricks to safeguard sensitive files.

At the file level, you can password protect an Excel workbook in two ways: You can determine who can get in and who can save changes.

You can make Excel always open old spreadsheets in Protected View. Enable or disable Protected View using in-built setting, Group Policy, Registry.

Need to keep a file confidential? Microsoft Word and Excel make it simple to assign a password.

In Word, Excel, or PowerPoint for Windows, open the file you want to protect with a password, then select File and Info. You should see a Protect option at the top of the next list: Click this ...

You worked hard to put that Excel sheet together, now protect it from unintended damage.

If you want to prohibit edits to the Excel file on the network, Excel includes "Read-Only" protection security in the workbook's settings.