Protecting a sheet so formulas stay safe in Grid
Protect a sheet in Grid by Zaweba so locked cells refuse edits, leave the input cells open with Format Cells, and keep formulas safe in shared templates.
The fastest way to break a good spreadsheet is to type over a formula. Someone enters this month's total by hand, the formula is gone, and next month's figures never arrive. Sheet protection in Grid by Zaweba prevents that by letting you decide which cells can be changed and which can't.
How locking works
Every cell has a locked setting, found on the Protection tab of Format Cells. On its own, the setting does nothing. Once the sheet is protected, locked cells refuse edits and unlocked cells can still be typed in. So check how the cells are set before you protect anything: if every cell is still locked, the whole sheet becomes read-only, which is rarely what you want.
Building a protected template
Start by deciding which cells are inputs: the places people should type. Select them, open Format Cells with Ctrl+1, go to the Protection tab and clear the locked setting. Give the input cells a light fill colour too, so it's obvious where to type.
Then protect the sheet. Formulas, headings and labels are now safe, while the input cells stay open. Try typing in a formula cell to check it refuses, and in an input cell to check it accepts.
Go To Special can speed up the preparation. Select the constants in the input area to find the typed values, or select the formulas to make sure none of them are among the unlocked cells.
Pairing protection with validation
Protection controls where people can type. Data validation controls what they can type. Together they make a form that's genuinely hard to break: drop-down lists for categories, sensible limits on numbers, and every formula out of reach. A timesheet, an expenses claim or a stock count sheet built this way can go to other people with confidence.
If you've connected your own AI account, Grid respects protection there too: an AI action never overwrites a locked cell on a protected sheet.
What protection is and isn't
Sheet protection is a guard against accidents, not a security system. It keeps well-meaning people from changing the wrong cells. It isn't a way to hide confidential figures from someone who has the file, so don't rely on it for that.
Protection applies to a sheet at a time. Protecting the workbook as a whole, to stop sheets being added, removed or renamed, isn't built into Grid, so if your structure matters, keep a master copy and share a duplicate.
Changing a protected sheet
When you need to change the formulas or layout, unprotect the sheet, make your changes, and protect it again. It's easy to forget the last step, so make re-protecting part of your routine whenever you edit a template. A note on the first input cell, saying the sheet is protected and who to ask, saves confusion for other users.
Common slips
Forgetting to clear the locked setting on the input cells before protecting is the usual one, and it shows up as a sheet nobody can fill in. Unlocking whole columns rather than just the input area is the other, which leaves formulas lower down exposed. Leave open only what needs to change.
Protected sheets are a simple feature, but in Grid by Zaweba they're what turns a working spreadsheet into a template other people can use without breaking it.
