Forum Discussion

Guy_Boswell's avatar
Guy_Boswell
Brass Contributor
Jul 02, 2026

Sort In Protected Worksheets

Why is there a protection option to allow sort on a protected worksheet - but it doesn't work?

I have found dozens of posts on work arounds, but why oh why do we need work arounds.  Just make the built in options work!

I want users to be able to see all the data in a table but not edit any of it - that works.

I want them to be able to select locked or unlocked cells, to allow them to copy data - that works

I want them to be able to filter data by different columns - that works.

So why not Sort???

excel

1 Reply

  • Jamony's avatar
    Jamony
    MCT
    Jul 02, 2026

    Hi, the tricky bit is that allowing Sort during protection is not enough by itself if Excel still sees locked cells in the sort range. In practice, the cells included in the sort usually need to be unlocked before protecting the sheet, and then you protect the sheet with Sort and AutoFilter allowed. If the table has formulas you do not want edited, one workaround is to protect formula columns separately and let users sort through filtered table headers.