How to Define Cells for Saving and Restoring

When using the Save defined cell values only mode, you must specify which cells your application will save and restore.

👉 To do this, simply right-click on one or more cells and choose “Let users save and restore selected cell value(s) with XLS Padlock” from the context menu.

Excel right-click context menu with the XLS Padlock option to let users save and restore selected cells

XLS Padlock will confirm that the selected cells are marked for saving and restoring.

Cells are recorded by sheet name and cell reference, and that reference is written into each save file. If you release an updated workbook in which a marked cell has moved, for example because you inserted a row, values from older save files are restored to the previous address rather than following the cell. Renaming or deleting a sheet referenced by a save file makes that save fail to load.

If your input cells may move between versions, drive them through custom values with VBA code instead: you choose a stable key for each value and your VBA decides which cell it goes to, so the data follows the cell wherever it moves. Custom values are available in cell-values save mode only, are read and written inside the XLSPadlock_SaveCustomValues and XLSPadlock_RestoreCustomValues events, and are stored as text.

Overview of Cells to be Saved

To view all cells configured for saving, click “Cell Save And Restore” in the XLS Padlock ribbon tab:

Cell Save And Restore button highlighted in the XLS Padlock ribbon tab in Excel

This opens a window listing all configured cells. From here, you can remove individual cells or clear the entire list. Review this list whenever you change the workbook layout, so that marked cells still point to the intended addresses.

XLS Padlock window listing all cells configured for saving and restoring

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How to Define Cells for Saving and Restoring

Overview of Cells to be Saved