Programmatically protect workbooks

You can protect a Microsoft Office Excel workbook so that users cannot add or delete worksheets, and also unprotect the workbook programmatically. You can optionally specify a password, indicate whether you want the structure protected (so users cannot move sheets around), and indicate whether you want the workbook's windows protected.

Applies to: The information in this topic applies to document-level projects and VSTO Add-in projects for Excel. For more information, see Features available by Office application and project type.

Protecting a workbook does not stop users from editing cells. To protect the data, you must protect the worksheets. For more information, see How to: Programmatically protect worksheets.

The following code examples use a variable to contain a password that is obtained from the user.

1. Call the Protect method of the workbook and include a password. To use the following code example, run it in the ThisWorkbook class, not in a sheet class.

   • C#
   • VB

   this.Protect(getPasswordFromUser, missing, missing);
   

1. Call the Unprotect method, passing a password if it is required. To use the following code example, run it in the ThisWorkbook class, not in a sheet class.

   • C#
   • VB

   this.Unprotect(getPasswordFromUser);
   

1. Call the Protect method of the workbook and include a password. This code example uses the active workbook. To use this example, run the code from the ThisAddIn class in your project.

   • C#
   • VB

   this.Application.ActiveWorkbook.Protect(getPasswordFromUser);
   

1. Call the Unprotect method of the active workbook, passing a password if it is required. To use this example, run the code from the ThisAddIn class in your project.

   • C#
   • VB

   this.Application.ActiveWorkbook.Unprotect(getPasswordFromUser);
   

• Work with workbooks
• How to: Programmatically protect worksheets
• How to: Programmatically hide worksheets
• Optional parameters in Office solutions