How to lock column width in Excel

You can watch a video tutorial here.

Spreadsheets are arranged as rows and columns and have a default height and width. You may need to adjust the column width when working with the sheet to suit the data that is entered in it. Columns can be easily made wider by dragging the column divider at the column header. There may be a scenario in which you want to lock the column width. Assume you have created a form that is to be filled in by a set of users. In such a case you will create the form and format it so that it looks neat and the fields are arranged properly. In such a case it would be better to lock the width of the column so that users do not accidentally change the width and disrupt the format.

Excel has a feature to protect a sheet that disables certain changes from being made to the cells.  This is effective only if the cells are locked. In this example, we will unlock the cells and set the protection to allow all changes except the formatting of columns.

Step 1 – Open the Format Cells window

– Select the entire sheet by clicking in the top left corner
– Right-click and select Format Cells  from the context menu
OR
Go to Home > Number  and click on the arrow to expand the menu
OR
Go to Home > Cells > Format > Format Cells
OR
– Press Ctrl+1

Step 2 – Unlock the cells

– Go to the Protection tab
– Uncheck the Locked checkbox
– Click OK

Step 3 – Protect the sheet

– Go to Review > Protect
– Click the Protect Sheet option

Step 4 – Set the parameters

– Select all options except for:
>Format columns
– Click OK

Step 5 – Check that the column width is locked

– Select a column by clicking on the header
– Right-click to display the context menu
– The Column Width option is disabled