Hiding Error Messages – Quick Tip

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Hello all

Chandoo has graciously, some may say stupidly, given me access to post on Chandoo.org.

I have been a reader of Chandoo.org for about 2 years and have spent most of my time contributing to the Forums where I have just posted my 950th post.

I have written a few small posts which Chandoo has used, and I wrote a major post on Monte Carlo Simulation and Data Tables:

http://chandoo.org/wp/2010/05/06/data-tables-monte-carlo-simulations-in-excel-a-comprehensive-guide/

Which was well recieved.

I will be starting to post about once per week and will be introducing a series of real life problems and how they can be tackled using Excel.

Hiding Error Messages

I like to leave certain error messages in place because they can show you what your data is doing, but they look horrible when you print out reports.

One way around this is to use functions like =Iserr or =Iserror to trap the error and display something else

Eg: A formula =A1/A2 will divide A1 by A2 and give you an answer,

but if A2 is 0 you will get a Divide Zero Error #DIV/0!

To fix that you can use the =IFERROR Function =IFERROR(A1/A2,0) which will now give you a zero if A2 is zero

But if you don’t mind seeing, or want to see, the errors on screen, but don’t want to print them out you can have Excel hide the error messages at Print time.

Page Setup - Sheet Options

How:

Goto the Page Setup menu
On the Sheet Tab use the Cell errors as:
and select <Blank>, “–“ or #N/A as appropriate

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9 Responses to “CP044: My first dashboard was a failure!!!”

  1. Oz says:

    CONGRATS on the book!

    Thanks for this podcast. It's great to hear about your disaster and recovery. It's a reminder that we're all human. None of this skill came easily.

  2. Din Muhammad Samimi says:

    Hey chandoo
    this really a good lesson learned
    but as I have already stated in one of my previous email that it would be more helpful for us if you could release videos of your classes for us
    thanks

  3. Nafi says:

    The article gave me motivation, especially you describing the terrible disaster that you faced but how to get back from the setbacks. Thanks for that, but with video this will be more fun.

  4. Amankwah says:

    You always motivate me with respect of the tools in excel. How we can really exploit it to the fullest. Thanks very much

  5. Juan says:

    Thank you very much, Chandoo, for your excellent lessons, I am anxious to learn so valuable tips and tricks from you, keep up the great job!
    I truly appreciate the transcripts of the podcasts, because as a speaker of English as a second language, it allows me to fully understand the material. It'd be great if you can add transcripts to your online courses too, I am sure people will welcome this feature.

  6. David Evans says:

    Dashboards for Excel has arrived in Laguna Beach, CA! Thanks!

    Now I need to make time to "learn and inwardly digest" its contents as one of my high school teachers would admonish us!

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