Comments on: How to hide and lock formulas in Excel

This tutorial shows how to hide formulas in Excel so they do not show up in the formula bar. Also, you will learn how to quickly lock a selected formula or all formulas in a worksheet to protect them from being deleted or overwritten by other users. Continue reading →

Comments page 2. Total comments: 92

  1. Hi , Good work.. very easy to understand ..thank you

  2. i have a formula, =Ordersinhouse!H126, that fills in a cell, i want to fill in the cell with this data but want to block/lock keyboard entries in this cell, is this possible?

  3. Hi,

    I want to hide formula on certain cells but want to allow input on other cells, how ca i do that??

  4. Hi, Svetlana,

    The process you showed above , makes the whole sheet Locked for editing once we protect the Sheet (->Review ->Protect Sheet ) .

    Is this possible to make the certain cells Locked while working on the sheets remaining cells can be edited simultaneously ?

  5. Hi. Thank you for your clear explanation for locking and unlocking cells with formulas. I am working on a spreadsheet a friend made with some pretty advanced formulas and macros embedded. Unfortunately, he does not trust me to not delete the formulas and locked down the whole workbook. I am not able to make any adjustments to font or color because of the lock. I was wondering...Is it possible to just lock specific cells with formulas but still allow the user to make changes to cell color? I would like to be able to highlight areas that need work or that I have a question about...

    Thanks,

    Tanya

  6. Thank for the great post .
    i need your help about "hide formulas in excel" , after read your post it workable for single sheet but it didint work on my second tap in same worksheet . please advise

  7. I have an excel sheet, but I cannot seem to select the hide and unhide button in the tab sheet. I have break the password already.

  8. Thanks. Very useful.

  9. Hi,

    Only a series of Cells containing formulae, I want to lock except the entire Worksheet.Can it be possible in EXCEL....if so what's the method?

    Thanks,

  10. Thanks so much!
    Vwey well explained, really useful

  11. In the step 2: "In the Go To Special dialog box, check the Formulas radio button (this will select the check boxes with all formula types), and click OK." It doesn't save this settings as formulas and it is going to the marked as "Comments".
    How to fix that? We use Excel 2016 (MS Office 360 Business). Thank you.

  12. Very well elaborated and explained in simple words,
    Thanks

  13. Hi
    i want to hide part of equation ( =SUM(V8:V38)+AG30) hide +AG30

  14. Do you know how I can automatically refresh my pivot table in google sheets? I have used the code G but it works only in excel. It, however, does not update online

    1. Thank you for your question, Manu.

      Please note that in contrast to Excel, pivot tables in Google Sheets are refreshed automatically.

      You can learn more about pivot tables in Google Sheets from the article on our blog.

  15. Is it possible to have an cell (unprotected and with a formula in it) revert to the formula which was there originally, even after somebody entered a different value? Maybe after a restart? Link a formula to the cell and have the formula be active even if a different value was entered by somebody else?
    I.E.: cell with existing formula, somebody types over formula, then decides they did so in error and delete what was typed, is there a way to retain the formula, without having to enter it again, or hitting undo? protecting the cell is not an option.

    Thanks in advance!

  16. Is it possible to protect cells that have a formula but also allow users to override the formula once ready to do so without having to mess with unlocking and unprotecting the sheet?

  17. hey, i protected a spreadsheet, however when i open it from google sheets all formulas are shown. any solution to prevent google sheets to show it.

  18. Excellent tutorial ,enjoyed it fully .

  19. What a great, easy-to-read, easy-to-understand tutorial. Thank you for this service!

  20. I've made an invoice sheet with formulas in some of the cells, but if there is no value for the formula to use, then I get 0's in the subtotal and total cells. Is there any way to hide those 0's if there is no values for the formulas so the invoice looks better?
    Thanks D

  21. How can I protect my formula column if i past special in entire sheet

    1. Nothing error should pop up but past past special should be done

    2. Nothing error should pop up

  22. i am having and excell file with recipes and the formulas are locked and i cant edit. when i edit the formula does not activate.

  23. can you point me in right direction?
    Sheet1 is connected to Sheet2
    when A1sheet1 changes row1sheet2 changes.
    When A2sheet1 changes row2sheet2 changes...so on
    I want to lock ColumnAsheet2 so that once I change values in Sheet1, values in ColumnAsheet2 doesn't change.
    Thank you.

  24. Thank you very much for this tips.

  25. how to protect only some cells(like two cells in worksheet)? please mam reply.

  26. Hi,

    I want to lock the cell which is containing a formula of SUM for another few cells, when i lock the Formula cell and then go to protect sheet and open the sheet from other users pc its protecting the whole sheet rather the highlighted cell i.e =SUM(D3:D11) i want D 2 to be locked but the rest of the cells D3 to D11 to be available for entering values.

    Thank you.

  27. i want to protect my formulas but still be able to enter an amount. by protecting the formulas i can't insert anything in those blocks. please help

  28. When adding a a new row to a protected worksheet I would like the formulas of the protected cells to automatically populate into the new row (without having to unprotect the sheet). Is there a way to do this?

    Kindly,
    Bailey

  29. I want to hide the formula only keeping other all cells editable.
    Formula's will be hidden but still it will work. Can you pls suggest ?

  30. hi i just want to lock the formula coulmn but when i lock and protect the sheet whole sheet is protected no value can be changed anyone plz help me

  31. Hi,

    I have an Excel sheet that I would like to send to others. I want them to be able to make their changes and be able to send the sheet back to me. However, I do not want them to have any access to my formulas at all for security purposes.

    Will locking and hiding the formulas ensure that they will not be able to access the formulas?

    Thank you very much!

  32. Hi,

    When I protect the sheet, then all the other buttons are not working. they got disabled. So can you please give me solution on this ?

    Thanks and regards,
    Aniket

  33. Hello,

    I want to hide cell which contain some formula, but when i am hiding the formula cell its automatically getting applied on the cells which are present in formula.

    for example - =IF(ISBLANK(D11),"",IF(((D11/30)*100)>89,"A+",IF(((D11/30)*100)>74,"A",IF(((D11/30)*100)>55,"B",IF(((D11/30)*100)>34,"C","D")))))

    if this formula is on column E but this formula contains col D in it, so when i am hiding col E. col D is also getting hide automatically.

    Please help me

    Regards
    Mayank

  34. Hello!
    I would like to enter a formula that uses =if(and( )) to grade my candidates according to their aggregate for instance: =if(d7<=12,"div1") but that condition is only true if the candidate has not scored a 9 in any of the four subjects making the aggregate 12. I tried entering like this =if(d7<=12(and(a7,b7,c7<9,"div1") but showed error that i couldn't correct so i got stuck.

    1. Hello Oromokoma,
      if you want to check whether no one scored 9, but it could be 10 or 11, then
      =IF(AND(D7<=12, A7<>9, B7<>9, C7<>9),"div1","")

      But if the score number should be lower than 9, then
      =IF(AND(D7<=12, A7<9, B7<9, C7<9),"div1","")

      The formula will return "div1" ONLY when all 4 conditions are met. If you meant something other than that, explain your task in more details and email us at support@ablebits.com with the workbook with data attached. Also, provide a link to this article and your comment.

  35. Hi, How can i lock a cell after data was is entered automatically?
    I want cells to be open for 7 days every month and after a certain date the cell must locked automatically.

  36. Hi, I was wondering if I was to use 5 different cell with each having a different formula like =SUM(A2*A3) and =B4-B5 and =C6/C7 etc. to see the bigger picture like creating a conversion counter. Are there a way to lock it so that when I change one of the cell with whatever number that all will follow and change? Because when I try to change a number in a cell, the formula goes away.
    Sorry this sounds confusing. It is hard to explain in writing.

  37. How you can insert any text in specific cell of excel, keeping range of number “0 to 100”

  38. I want to hide the formula only keeping other all cells editable.
    Formula's will be hidden but still it will work. Can you pls suggest ?

  39. Hi,

    I want your help i dont know how to protect the cells with the formulas to avoid any edition of them, but to allow users to drop or copy the formula to a new cell in case they need to add information.

    Thanks

  40. I have a perpetual spreadsheet and the date column has a circle formula =IF(D15"",IF(C15="",NOW(),C15),"") and I don't want to have the formula deleted. I have tried the protect sheet but this will prevent the spreadsheet to be perpetual like adding in a new row when the tab is hit.

  41. Dear Sir,
    I want Hide Formulas and display values in formula bar

  42. I need to protect and hide my formula cells...

    I did everything and it's protect and hide perfectly but the problem is after i enter the data s in the unprotected cells i cant able to edit option , if i click f2 then the error msg comes.

  43. dear sir,

    how to hide cell value in formula bar without protect sheet and hid formula bar.

    1. Hi Nitin,

      It's not possible to hide a cell value in the formula bar. To hide the formula bar, go to the View tab > Show group, and clear the the Formula Bar check box.

  44. I,am not satisfied with your solution

    i want just to hide formula without protecting the whole sheet

  45. I have used a basic formula =A2+7

    However, I am trying to determine how to prevent any results to display prior to the data being entered. Meaning, I would like the date to only show up once someone has entered it into A2.

    1. =IF(A2="","",A2+7)

      In other words, if cell A2 is blank then the cell in which the formula is located should remain blank. Otherwise the basic formula is performed.

  46. I have 3 value
    1 79
    2 76
    3 256.45*7%
    4 blank cell
    Dear,

    I want you from ur side that how we can automate value in 4th blank sale of highest value when we can change value 1 and 2 manually 4th blank cell can be give highest result.it should be used via IF condition ... i find my result by max function but i want this from if condition

  47. i a have a workbook with sheets and its not my own work
    i need to show the cells formula cause i need to change something in the formula to my own need the broblem is that the cells are protected what can i do ???

  48. I have logical statement formulas in cells and a check box that is used to launch the formula and place a value in the cell based on the formula. I would like to protect the worksheet, but when I protect the sheet and click on the check the box, it won't place the value into the cell.
    How can I use the check box and logical formulas within a protected worksheet?

  49. Hi, I wonder if there's a way to retrieve forgotten password for a protected sheet. Your guidance is highly appreciated...

    Long

      1. Hi Svetlana.
        With this password removal tool, any pass-worded Excel workbook can be breached, right?

      2. Thanks a lot.

  50. Is it possible to not only hide and protect certain formulas on an excel spreadsheet, but to also hide a pivot table that is on a separate sheet within the workbook?

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