Here is a very quick tip if you ever want to hide a cell’s contents in excel
Just use the custom cell formatting (more here) code ;;;
How? (see the screencast aside too)
1. Select the cell you want to hide
2. Hit CTRL+1 (or open format cells dialog from right click)
3. Go to Number tab, select “custom” as the type
4. Type the formatting code as “;;;” without double quotes
5. Press OK and your cell contents are invisible now
What is the use of doing this?
1. This might be handy when you are using conditional formatting to highlight / change cell colors
2. This might be handy when you need to calculate intermediate values, but dont want to display them. (But try to use Hide rows / hide columns feature if you can)
Remember: This formatting code only blanks out the cell contents from being seen. They contents are still there and accessible for formulas, charts as such.
Also know how to display colors in chart data labels using custom cell formatting codes
What is your favorite cell formatting trick?
