Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. 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: Turning Off Error Checking.

Turning Off Error Checking

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 20, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365


While you have Excel open, it is constantly checking in the background for potential errors in your worksheets. If an error is located (or, at the least, what Excel thinks is an error), then the cell is "flagged" with a small green triangle in the upper-left corner of the cell.

If you don't want Excel to check for errors, you can turn the feature off by following these steps:

  1. Display the Excel Options dialog box. (In Excel 2007 click the Office button and then click Excel Options. In Excel 2010 or later versions display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
  2. Click Formulas at the left side of the dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The Formulas area of the Excel Options dialog box.

  4. Clear the Enable Background Error Checking check box.
  5. Click OK.

Any existing green triangles should disappear, and Excel stops checking for errors.

Understand that turning off error checking in this manner affects only the way that Excel works on your own system. If you share the workbook with someone else and they open it on their system, the display of the "flags" is controlled by the setting on their system.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (10655) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Turning Off Error Checking.

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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Horizontally Viewing All Your Text

If you are viewing a document and your text runs off the right side of the document window, it can be a real bother to ...

Discover More

The Case of the Disappearing MRU File List

If the MRU list has disappeared, follow this tip to reactivate the list in Word.

Discover More

Solving a Quadratic Equation

One of the staples of high school algebra classes is the quadratic equation. If you need to solve such equations in ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Adding a Little Animation to Your Life

Tired of the same old boring Excel look? You can add some life to your worksheets by introducing some animation. Here's ...

Discover More

Making Page Breaks More Visible

When you view a worksheet in Print Preview, Excel shows you the position of page breaks once you return to the worksheet. ...

Discover More

Enlarging the Formula Bar

The Formula bar is used to display the formula that appears in a cell. You may want to modify how the Formula bar is ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is six minus 4?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.