Hello,
Would it be possible to have the ability to lock/protect cells so users cannot enter data in a cell with a formula and destroy it?
Thanks,
Carol
2 Likes
You can edit data type and mark it as ‘Strict’.
@Santosh I think what Carol is asking about is the ability to prevent certain users from changing column/range/cell values – so if she writes a formula, other users cannot modify it. Marking a data type as Strict will prevent the ability to enter a formula.
1 Like
@Carol_Merriman Today we don’t have the ability to lock columns/ranges/cells for certain users. The closest thing is permission level – users with the “Viewer” permission on a workbook cannot edit anything (they have read-only access).
We do have plans to add column/range/cell-level permissions (i.e. control who can read/write down to the individual cell level) but we don’t have a timeline on this yet. Hope this helps.
Santosh’s suggestion would help with data validation (i.e. making sure users can only enter data that matches the assigned data type)
2 Likes
Thanks for the response.
Yes, I want to protect certain columns from users who enter data from destroying the formulas.
This would be a great feature so a spreadsheet could be distributed to more people.
Carol
If you want to define an entire column as read-only formula cells, would request you to consider leveraging Column Formulas as a possible alternative.
Column formulas:
- Defined at column level and not individual cell level. Caters to use-cases around applying similar formula on fields in each row. Examples:
- Concatenating First Name, Last Name fields on each row =CONCATENATE( A, B)
- Finding ratio of a field with respect to entire column: =DIV( C, C1:C100)
- Read-only by default i.e. formula cannot be altered at individual cell level.
1 Like
+1 for this feature.
or a way to sync data views to another Worksheet 
+1 for the ability to lock cells! @matt described my use perfectly:
@Santosh I think what Carol is asking about is the ability to prevent certain users from changing column/range/cell values – so if she writes a formula, other users cannot modify it.
Welcome @Abdelaleem_Shaban. Column/range/cell permissions is on our roadmap but given the frequency of other requests it is not currently a priority. We will update this space once we get closer.
1 Like
Hi @Megan_Mya, This is under discussion as it is coming up more frequently, but we don’t have an ETA yet. We’ll update this thread as soon as we have more to share. Thanks for voting for this feature and being active here.
+1 for developing this idea. It’s one very strong and important function I need to be able to use this product going forward. Please think about moving up in the priority list. 
1 Like
Hi @Laurie_Wojtaszczyk, thanks for the upvote and for your patience. This is a popular request. Given our current roadmap we are hoping to get to it in early 2023.
1 Like
+1 for column level permissions.
2 Likes
Thanks for the upvote @Angela_L_Perry this is indeed one of the most popular feature requests we continue to hear about. It is and remains a priority for us in our short term roadmap. Thanks for your patience as we get there.
Above in this thread “early 2023” was mentioned as ETA for this important feature. Is it already available?
Also curious if the ability to protect functions has been rolled out. I’m trying to choose a platform to use and can’t use anything that won’t allow me to treat the templates as actual, functional templates without concern for user’s unintentionally deleting functions
1 Like
If not, is there a suggested workaround? Maybe creating the empty template with functions and then a separate form for user input that is automatically imported into the correct fields on the template?
Great point. We have not implemented this yet, nor the ability to lock rows, columns, and individual cells and ranges. This continues to be a popular feature request and we do hope to move it up in our roadmap priority.
It is possible to use a Form View for this purpose, whereby each form submission becomes a row. More on Form Views here: