If you have sensitive data you'd like to keep from prying eyes in a Microsoft Excel file, the easiest way to protect it is with Excel's built-in password tools.

If you want to set an expiration date and password when sharing Excel files online, here is how you can do that. It is possible to do both of them when using Excel Online.

Add a password and expiry date to an Excel sheet link If you use Microsoft's OneDrive cloud platform to save and share Excel files, you can password-protect and set an expiry date for a shared link.

You can have Excel make a spreadsheet in read only format for others, so that people can read its contents but not edit them, or you can enforce other content restrictions.

In Word, Excel, or PowerPoint for Windows, open the file you want to protect with a password, then select File and Info. You should see a Protect option at the top of the next list: Click this ...