Q&A Forum

I am afraid it doesn't seem possible if they open it in numbers, I found this post on the subject.
"Perhaps Apple does not see this as such an "important issue" that needs fixing.

Many spreadsheet applications, including MS Excel, do offer the ability to lock individual cells. But those applications produce documents consisting of a single large table, on which every cell in the document must be placed.

Numbers uses a different model: Tables are smaller, generally have a single purpose, and may be located on a number of different Sheets ('canvasses').

Implicit in that model is the ability to separate data entry from calculations by placing the two tasks onto separate sheets. Locking the table(s) containing the calculations may be used to prevent inadvertent editing of the formulas. For that matter, locking the table(s) containing the data could also be used to prevent (inadvertent) editing of the data.

And, no, password protection for that locking is not available. That was also true in iWork's predecessor, AppleWorks. Like the iWork applications, AppleWorks offered password protection at the document level, but not for anything short of that. AppleWorks's spreadsheet module, which used the large, single table model, did offer the ability to lock single cells or groups of cells (but not to assign a password to that lock/unlock operation).

And, as an aside, "Apple's Excel for Mac" is emphatically not among the spreadsheets that "have the ability to lock cells." There's a very simple reason for that: Applications that don't exist can't have that (or any) ability, and "Apple's Excel for Mac" does not exist. Excel for Mac is a Microsoft application that runs on the Mac platform.

Regards,

Barry

PS: If this is as important an issue as you make it to be, you should Provide Numbers Feedback to Apple, requesting a Feature enhancement be added to a future edition of Numbers providing this ability. Use the item of that name in the Application menu (in Numbers, the "Numbers" menu), or click the link in this message."