Recently I needed to help a company set up email accounts for all of their employees on a new server. I was given the email address usernames but needed to create the passwords for each account. I didn’t want to be lazy and assign everyone the same password, or even an easily guessed sequential password, so I used the tip below to generate random character strings in Excel to give each user a unique and random password.

How to Generate Random Character String in Excel

In order to generate random character strings in Excel, you need to be able to generate random numbers, upper and lowercase letters, and special symbols. Excel has this functionality built in to help generate random character strings.

Generate Random Number String

To generate a random number string in Excel, simply use a formula like this:

=RANDBETWEEN(0,9)

This will randomly display a number between 0 and 9 each time the page is refreshed.

Generate Random Uppercase Letter String

=CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(65,90))

This will randomly display a letter between A-Z.

Generate Random Lowercase Letter String

=CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(97,122))

This will randomly display a letter between a-z.

Generate Random Symbol String

=CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(33,47))

This will randomly generate one of the following symbols: !”#$%&'()*+,-./

*Note: the CHAR() formula in Excel will generate a lot of other symbols as well. However, if the purpose is to create a password that someone may have to type on their keyboard, you want to keep it simple and avoid symbols like ¶, Œ, or ©. While these symbols can be typed with a special combination of keystrokes, it isn’t likely that someone will want to remember how to type each of these characters.

Generate a Random Password

Good passwords tend to have at least eight characters and are a mix of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. To do this, simply combine the above formulas into one formula by simply adding an ampersand (&) in between each formula, like this:
=RANDBETWEEN(0,9)&CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(65,90))&CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(97,122))&CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(33,47))&RANDBETWEEN(0,9)&CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(65,90))&CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(97,122))&CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(33,47))[/restrict]
This would create something like 6Ib&4Rj/ or 8Bs%3Xa+

You can have any combination of letters, numbers or symbols that you want by moving the formulas around. There’s also nothing saying you couldn’t have a longer password string by chaining on even more randomness to the formula.

A word of caution! If you are using this to generate a list of passwords, for example, be aware that the list will automatically change every time you refresh your worksheet, or change the value of a cell, etc. To ensure you don’t lose these values once they’re created, select the list of random passwords, copy and paste them as values. This will prevent them from updating again.

Another thing to consider is that if you need to make sure that all values are unique, this method isn’t foolproof. While it may not be likely that you will get the same string more than once, it certainly is possible. One easy way to check for duplicates is to use Conditional Formatting on the list of cells. First, select all the cells where you will generate random character strings. Then on the Home tab, Styles group select Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cells Rules > Duplicate Values. In the first drop-down make sure “Duplicate” is selected, then choose a format in the drop-down. Click OK.

As your passwords are generated it will check for duplicates and highlight any that show up. I used this method on a quick test by copying the formula above down the entire column A (over 1 million random strings), and there were duplicates.

The post Generate Random Character String appeared first on Excel Zoom.

It’s actually pretty easy to protect your worksheet from people who might want to get creative with your hard work.

Here’s the steps to lock all cells in your workbook, except for the few individual cells you want people to input information to.

1. Click the box to the left of column A (in between column A and row 1). This will select all cells.
2. Right click the same box – select “Format Cells” then click the “Protection” tab.
3. Make sure the “Locked” check box is checked.
4. Click “OK” These first few steps just made sure that all cells are locked. See steps 5-6 for unlocking individual cells.
5. Right click just the cell(s) you wish to have editable by the end user (i.e. unlocked).
6. Select “Format Cells” then click the “Protection” tab. Then un-check the “Locked” box. This will “unlock” the cells that you want the end user to be able to edit.
7. In newer versions of Excel (2007+), click the “Review” tab, then click “Protect Sheet” under the “Changes” group.
   In older versions of Excel (97-2003), this is found under the “Tools” menu, then “Protection”.
8. If you wish, enter a password in the prompt to be used to un-protect the sheet.
   Note: If no password is entered, anyone can repeat step #7 to un-protect the sheet.
9. Under “Allow all users of this worksheet to:” un-check all boxes except for “Select unlocked cells” then click OK.

Users will now only be able to select and input into the cells that were unlocked in step #6. They won’t be able to insert or delete columns or rows, add comments, or any of the other actions listed in the Protect Sheet window.

It might also be a good idea to format your worksheet in such a way that the end user will know which cells can be (or should be) edited. For example, a different cell background or border color might be a good visual cue to someone that a cell is editable. Alternatively, you could type some generic text (i.e. “First Name”, “Last Name”, “Address”, etc.) into the cells, so  the users will know what is expected of them in the cells.

Now what happens if you enter a password, want to go back and edit your worksheet, but forget what the password was? Well in most cases, you are stuck. You won’t be able to edit anything other than the unlocked cells. That is, of course, unless you know how to crack the password.

The post Protect a Worksheet Except for Individual Cells appeared first on Excel Zoom.

Before we learn how to recover a protected excel sheet password, let’s figure out why people password protect worksheets to begin with.  By protecting a worksheet and the contents of locked cells, users can keep themselves or other users from:

• Accidentally (or intentionally) removing formulas, or other contents of locked cells
• Adding or deleting rows and columns
• Changing cell, column or row formats
• Sorting data
• Using AutoFilter or PivotTable reports
• Editing objects or scenarios

Protecting a worksheet will not keep users from

• Editing any unlocked cells in the worksheet
• Viewing all data in the worksheet, regardless of if it is in a locked cell or not
• Hacking excel passwords / Cracking excel passwords. Excel is not ‘secure’.

Being able to unlock a password protected worksheet is useful, when

• You have forgotten the password on your own worksheet (forgotten excel passwords)
• A co-worker, or other user has password protected a worksheet that you now need to edit, and they are not available to unlock the sheet for you
• You have a need to perform an analysis of the data in a password protected worksheet, but are unable to do so due to the locked cells
• You would like to sort/filter the data in a password protected worksheet, or create a PivotTable report from the data
• Need to recover an excel password

Since Microsoft Excel is not a “secure” program, it is very easy to unlock the password of a password protected worksheet.  This is because there are several different combinations of passwords that Excel will accept to unlock the worksheet.  For example, a worksheet with the password “treehouse”, can also be unlocked with the password “AAAABAABBBB/”.  The opposite is also true (i.e. protecting with the password “AAAABAABBBB/” can be unlocked with the password “treehouse”).  Go ahead; try locking a worksheet with the password treehouse, and use AAAABAABBBB/ to unlock it.

The macro code below will “unlock” one worksheet at a time, using the method used above.  It won’t provide you with the actual password someone typed in, but rather a random sequence of letters or symbols that will work to unlock the worksheet. It should not be used as an excel password hack or for breaking an excel password.

Recover excel password

Step 1 – Open the worksheet in Excel where you have forgotten your excel password. This is so we can try to recover protected excel sheet password with VBA.

Step 2 – Open the VBA Editor (ALT + F11) – see our guide How to open Excel VBA Editor if you are unfamiliar with how to do this.

Step 3 – Insert a new module and use the VBA code below to find your forgot excel password.


Sub PasswordRecovery()
'
'MACROS BY EXCELZOOM.COM
Dim i As Integer, j As Integer, k As Integer
Dim l As Integer, m As Integer, n As Integer
Dim i1 As Integer, i2 As Integer, i3 As Integer
Dim i4 As Integer, i5 As Integer, i6 As Integer
On Error Resume Next
For i = 65 To 66: For j = 65 To 66: For k = 65 To 66
For l = 65 To 66: For m = 65 To 66: For i1 = 65 To 66
For i2 = 65 To 66: For i3 = 65 To 66: For i4 = 65 To 66
For i5 = 65 To 66: For i6 = 65 To 66: For n = 32 To 126
ActiveSheet.Unprotect Chr(i) & Chr(j) & Chr(k) & _
Chr(l) & Chr(m) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & Chr(i3) & _
Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(n)
If ActiveSheet.ProtectContents = False Then
MsgBox "One usable password is " & Chr(i) & Chr(j) & _
Chr(k) & Chr(l) & Chr(m) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & _
Chr(i3) & Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(n)
Exit Sub
End If
Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
End Sub


Step 4 – Run the VBA code (F5) to recover excel password. You will receive a pop-up like the below to recover the excel sheet password.

It is worth noting that Microsoft is quite clear on its stance that you need to remember or make a note of passwords when protecting a workbook or worksheet and will not offer help in order to recover a lost excel password. See the MS protect a workbook page. So Microsoft cannot help if you have forgotten your excel password or need help recovering a password to open a workbook or worksheet (and probably rightly so!). We notice there is plenty of software available online to help unlock a password protected worksheet in Excel (for all versions of excel) however we like the VBA code noted above as a first option and haven’t tried and tested all third party applications enough to feel comfortable recommending on here.

* Update – Since this code is widely available online I have unrestricted it from our members area to make it available to all. I hope this helps as we all know how frustrating it can be when you are unable to access a worksheet that you need due to a password protected excel forgot password issue at work or at home. This should not be used to crack an excel protected sheet or break into worksheet you should not have access to. It is however, one useful method to unlock an excel password protected excel sheet.

Happy Excelling!  And remember, try not to forget that excel worksheet password in the first place if possible! :-)

The post How to Recover Lost Excel Passwords appeared first on Excel Zoom.