Concept: Protected Ranges and Defined Names in Workbooks

Workbook owners and editors can create a defined name
for cells or ranges of cells in workbooks to make formula-writing easier and to make formulas easier to read. Owners can also protect
ranges to prevent all collaborators, including editors, from changing them.

Defined Names

Action	Steps	Notes
Create a defined name.	Select the cell or range, right-click, and then select Define Name . The Formula field contains the selected cell or range reference by default; to define a name for a formula, constant, or non-contiguous set of cell ranges, edit the field as needed. If you want to create a defined name containing live data that updates automatically when you refresh the live data, use the ARRAYAREA formula. Example: Specify something like this in the Formula field for the defined name: =ARRAYAREA('Sheet1'!A1)	Naming rules are consistent with popular spreadsheet products, to maximize compatibility. Names can be between 4 and 255 characters long. Defined names must be unique per workbook, and can't be the same as any pivot table names or live data table names.
Insert a defined name into a formula.	When you are typing a formula in the formula bar or in a cell, you don't need to remember all the defined names in the workbook. When you start typing a defined name, Worksheets generates a dropdown list of names for you to select from. When selecting a defined name in the formula drop-down menu using the keyboard, use Tab (not Enter) to select it.
View all defined names.	Open the Defined Names panel by selecting View Panels Defined Names . Alternatively, when you start typing a formula into the formula bar or a cell, defined names for the workbook display in the drop-down menu.	When you select a defined name, its cells are highlighted in the workbook.
Edit a defined name	From the Defined Names panel, select the options (three dot) menu and click Edit .	You can edit either the name or the cell range. If you use this defined name in a Slides presentation and later you change its name, you need to refresh the linked data in the presentation to see the updated data. If you edit the range so that the linked value is no longer included, you need to remove and re-add the linked data.
Delete a defined name.	Hover over the range in the Defined Names panel, then click Delete .	If you delete a defined name, any formulas associated with that name will stop working. Recreating it with the same name will restore functionality in Worksheets, but will not work for the Slides integrating app. In this situation, you'll need to create new links. This is because Slides uses an internally-generated ID instead of the name to identify defined names.

Protected Ranges

Workbook owners can protect ranges to prevent all collaborators, including editors, from changing them.

For protected ranges, in the Protected Ranges panel the workbook owner sees

Can Edit

below any protected range name; all other collaborators see

Can View

When any user selects a cell in a protected range, the user interface displays a lock indicator on the function bar icon.

Note
: When you refresh the live data in a workbook, Worksheets disregards protected ranges when doing those refreshes. You can't prevent a live data refresh from overwriting existing workbook content.

Action	Steps	Notes
Protect a range.	Select the cell or range, right-click, and then select Protect Range .	A user with edit permission can change public filter selections, by clicking the filter icon on a column and then changing the selected checkboxes. As a best practice, if you want to allow users to filter protected data, place a public filter on the workbook before protecting it, and then remind people with edit access to click the filter icon to do their own filtering.
View all protected ranges.	Open the Protected Ranges panel by selecting View Panels Protected Ranges .	When you select a protected range, its cells are highlighted in the workbook.
Remove protection for a range.	Hover over the range in the Protected Ranges panel, then click Delete .