Theory
The helper who changed a price
Meera hires a cousin to enter daily quantities while she serves customers. By evening the totals look wrong: the cousin had accidentally overtyped a price while tabbing across.
Meera does not want to stop the help. She wants the price column frozen, editable by her alone, while quantities stay open.
Excel can do exactly that, but the feature has a two-step twist that catches almost everyone. First, the everyday reshaping tools; then the lock that Meera needs.
Theory
Reshaping the grid
- Insert / delete rows or columns: right-click a row number or column letter, choose Insert or Delete. Existing data shifts to make room or close the gap, and formulas adjust their references automatically.
- Cell size: drag the boundary line between two column letters (or row numbers) to widen/heighten; double-click that boundary to autofit to the content.
- Format Cells (Ctrl+1): one dialog for number style, alignment, font, border and fill.
- Rename a sheet: double-click its tab and type ("January" beats "Sheet1").
Theory
A locked glass display case
A jeweller keeps rings in a glass case: customers can look, point, admire, but not touch, while the counter stays open for browsing. Excel's protection is that case. But here is the twist: the glass only matters once you switch the alarm on. Marking a cell "locked" is putting it behind glass; Protect Sheet is arming the alarm. No alarm, no protection.
Follow along
Protect ONLY the price column (Meera's goal)
- Select the whole sheet, open Format Cells, uncheck Locked Counter-intuitive but essential: by default EVERY cell is locked, so first unlock everything.
- Select just the price column, open Format Cells, tick Locked Now only the prices are marked locked; quantities are unlocked.
- Go to Review tab and click Protect Sheet This arms the alarm. Set an optional password.
- Test it The helper can type quantities freely; editing a price is now blocked. Job done.
Quiz
Meera marks the price column as Locked but the helper can still change prices. Why?
- Locking does nothing until Protect Sheet is turned on
- The column was locked in the wrong direction
- Locked cells can always be edited by anyone
- She needed to delete and re-insert the column first
Show the answer
Locking does nothing until Protect Sheet is turned on
The single most-missed Excel fact: the Locked attribute is dormant until you Protect Sheet (Review tab). Lock is "put behind glass"; Protect Sheet is "arm the alarm". One without the other does nothing. This exact two-step gotcha is a favourite practical-exam question.
Think first
Why unlock first?
The steps say to UNLOCK the whole sheet before locking just the price column. That feels backwards. Think it through: what is every cell's default state, and what would happen if Meera skipped this step and just Protected the sheet?
Show the answer
By default every cell is already Locked. If Meera skipped straight to Protect Sheet, the entire sheet would freeze, her helper could not even type quantities. So the trick is: unlock everything first, re-lock only the prices, then protect. The result: prices frozen, quantities open. Default-locked is exactly why the unlock step is not optional.
Watch out
Where marks leak
Saying "locking a cell protects it", incomplete: locking is inert until Protect Sheet. Forgetting that all cells are locked by default, which is why protecting some cells means unlocking the rest first. And confusing delete row (removes the row, shifts others up) with clear contents (empties the cell, keeps the row). Exams test that delete-vs-clear distinction directly.
Theory
This is a real job skill
Every office shares spreadsheets, and "protect the formulas, let people fill the inputs" is daily work in finance, HR and inventory. The mental model, lock the case, arm the alarm, is the same idea as file permissions in an operating system (BCA203) and column privileges in a database (Unit 3). Control who can change what: you will meet it everywhere.
Summary
Key takeaways
- Insert/delete rows and columns by right-clicking the header; data and formulas shift automatically.
- Resize by dragging the header boundary; double-click to autofit. Format Cells (Ctrl+1) styles everything.
- Rename a sheet by double-clicking its tab.
- All cells are Locked by default, but Locked does nothing until Protect Sheet is on.
- To protect SOME cells: unlock everything, re-lock the chosen cells, then Protect Sheet.
- Memory hook: lock the glass case, then arm the alarm.