Google Drive Blog: Sheet protection gives you finer control of your spreadsheets

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Sheet protection gives you finer control of your spreadsheets

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

When working on a spreadsheet together with others, sometimes it's handy to allow some people to modify specific sheets but restrict them from modifying other sheets.
Today we've added sheet protection - an additional layer of control over who can edit individual sheets, using the list of people invited as collaborators. Just go to the sheet, bring up the menu, and choose Protect sheet.

Say I'm throwing a party (a wild one, of course) and I've invited my friends Frank, Ian, Kev and Veronica to a spreadsheet to help with planning. I know for sure Ian and Kev have good taste in music so I'll let them select some choice tunes... but Frank should probably just stick to bringing chips and salsa. Here's how I set up protection for the sheet titled Music playlist:

Easy as that. Ian and Kev will be able to modify the sheet all they like, while Frank and Veronica will see the sheet but won't be able to make changes. (Later, if Veronica promises to leave her enormous ABBA collection at home, maybe I'll let her edit it too.)

Sheet protection is a great way to add a little fine control over the contents of your spreadsheets. We hope you find it as useful as we have.

Posted by: Joseph Wain, User Experience Designer