Hiding Data

Last month we talked a bit about protecting and hiding data. However, using a sheet's Protection feature to hide data is overkill if you just want to hide a cell or two. For a quick hiding method, right-click the cell that contains data you don't want anyone else to see. Choose Format Cells from the context menu and select Custom from the Category control. Then, type three semicolons, as in

;;;

in the Type control, and click OK. Excel will hide the data in the newly formatted cell or range. However, you'll still be able to see the contents of the cell in the Formula bar.

To unhide the data, simply apply a different format.