Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. 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: Hiding Errors on Printouts.

Hiding Errors on Printouts

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 5, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

Excel has a number of different errors that can appear in your worksheet, for any number of reasons. Errors values show up with a pound (hash) symbol followed by the type of error, as in #DIV/0! or #N/A.

When you print your worksheet, Excel prints the error values, by default. If you prefer, you can choose to have Excel not print the error values. Follow these steps:

Display the Page Layout tab of the ribbon.
Click the small icon at the lower-right of the Page Setup group. Excel displays the Page Setup dialog box.
Make sure the Sheet tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Sheet tab of the Page Setup dialog box.

Use the Cell Errors As drop-down list to specify how you want the error values printed.
Click OK to close the Page Setup dialog box.

In step 4, you have several options in the drop-down list:

Displayed. Prints the error values as they show in the worksheet.
<Blank>. Replaces the error value with a blank; effectively hides the error values.
--. Replaces the error value with two dashes.
#N/A. Replaces all error values with #N/A.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6144) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Hiding Errors on Printouts.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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