Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Easy Value Hiding.
Excel provides many different ways to hide the content of your workbooks. Perhaps one of the easiest (and most novel) ways is to use the custom formatting feature of the program. Follow these steps:
Figure 1. The Number tab of the Format Cells dialog box.
Now the information in the cell is not visible, nor will it print. You can, however, see the information in the Formula Bar, and it can be overwritten if you enter anything else in the cell.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6122) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Easy Value Hiding.
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2015-08-13 15:47:54
Kim Wennerberg
I find this useful because by its very nature, Excel is both a data tool and a data display tool. Sometimes I want data to be there, but not have it visible. I have used color font = color of fill previously, but this is nicer.
2013-09-27 06:36:35
Tips is amazing to me. But what is its use.
2013-07-08 09:30:11
Bryan
This is really clever, though I can't think of a reason you would ever need to use it.
2013-07-06 22:40:13
Vicki Murray
If it is just one item, go to the cell that has a title in it (e,g,: cell A1) and change the custom format as shown but after the 3 semi-colons, enter the text for the header. No matter what the value of the cell is, it will read your header.
Take it one set further. Go to the "protection" tab (shown above), click "Hidden" and and "Lock" if desired to lock in the value. Then protect or lock the spreadsheet. Now the value of the cell can't be seen. If you calculate on the cell, it looks like you are operating on a text.
2013-07-06 13:17:48
Walter Antoku
I just usually change the font to "white", assuming I'm printing to a white background.
2013-07-06 09:26:07
Thank you, very nice tip,
By the way, i used to display the zero values as -, using ##,#;-##,#;"-"
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: 
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