How to Change an Excel Sheet from Read Only

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Darlene Antonelli, MA. Darlene Antonelli is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. Darlene has experience teaching college courses, writing technology-related articles, and working hands-on in the technology field. She earned an MA in Writing from Rowan University in 2012 and wrote her thesis on online communities and the personalities curated in such communities.

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This wikiHow will teach you how to change an Excel sheet from a read-only status using a computer. If you're the owner of the file, this is a fairly simple process; however, if you're not the original creator of the file, there are limited solutions to this issue.

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This method works for Excel for Microsoft 365, Excel for Microsoft 365 for Mac, Excel for the web, Excel 2019-2007, and Excel 2019-2011 for Mac.
If you open an Excel file that was sent to you and it opens but gives you a pop-up warning that read-only is recommended, you can click either Yes if you don't want to make edits or No if you want to make edits. To prevent that pop-up from appearing in the future, go to File > Save As > Browse > Tools > General Options and deselect "Read-only recommended."
Some files may not let you edit unless you enter a password. You'll be prompted for this password when you open the file; if you cannot type the right key, you will not be able to edit the file.

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If the file was sent to you as "final", all you need to do is click the Edit Anyway button that's at the top of your screen in the yellow/orange banner. [1] X Research source

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\n"> Click Get Info . You'll see this in the menu that drops-down or slides out.

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Click the box to uncheck it next to "Locked." This will change your document from prompting to open in a read-only status. [2] X Research source

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