Earlier we devoted articles to the questions: How to hide cells, rows and columns in Excel, as well as How to hide sheets and workbooks. In addition to this, you can hide notes, formulas, extra text and grid lines. You will learn how to hide all these elements from this article.
Hide notes
In Excel, when you add a comment to a cell, a small red triangle appears in the upper right corner of the cell to indicate that the cell contains a comment. When you hover over or highlight this cell, the note is displayed in a pop-up window.
If there are a lot of notes on the sheet, then most likely you will not be happy to see red cell corners everywhere and numerous note pop-ups that pop up every time you move the mouse here and there. To hide notes, go to the tab File (Queue).
In the menu on the left, click Parameters (Options).
On the left side of the dialog box Excel options (Excel Options) click Additionally (Advanced).
Scroll to section Screen (Display). In the parameter group For cells with comments, show (For cells with comments, show) select the radio button next to the item Nothing (No comments or indicators).
Press OKto save settings and close the dialog Excel options (Excel Options).
The red triangles and note pop-ups are now hidden.
Notes are still attached to their respective cells and can be viewed. To do this, on the tab Reviewing (Review) in command group Notes (Comments) click Show all notes (Show All Comments).
All notes on the sheet will be shown without having to hover over the cell. To hide all note pop-ups, click the button Show all notes (Show All Comments) again. Note pop-ups will be hidden, but the red corners will remain visible.
Button press Show all notes (Show All Comments) automatically sets the radio button next to the item For cells with comments, show > Indicators and balloon notes only (For cells with comments, show > Indicators only, and comments on hover).
Hiding Formulas
In order to hide a formula, you need to do two things. The first step is to make the cell hidden and then protect the table. Right-click on the cell where you want to hide the formula, and from the context menu select Cell format (Format cells).
Note: You can select multiple cells and hide formulas in them at the same time.
On the Advanced tab Protection (Protection) dialog box Cell format (Format Cells) check the box Hide formulas (Hidden). Click OKto save changes and close the dialog box.
The formulas will not be hidden until you protect the sheet. To do this, click Reviewing > Changes > Protect Sheet (Review > Changes > Protect Sheet).
A dialog box will appear Sheet Protection (Protect Sheet). To make sure that other users cannot make formulas visible, enter a password in the field Password to disable sheet protection (Password to unprotect sheet). Listed Allow all users of this sheet (Allow all users of this worksheet to) check the boxes for the actions that users will be allowed to perform on this worksheet. Click OKto save changes and close the dialog box.
Note: A password is not required, but we recommend that you set it if you do not want other users to be able to remove protection from the sheet.
A dialog box will appear asking you to confirm the entered password.
The formulas in the selected cells will not appear in the formula bar, but the results of those formulas will be visible in the cells. If you entered a password when you set the sheet protection, other users will not be able to use the button. Show formulas (Show Formulas) tab formula (Formulas) to display all formulas present on the sheet.
To display formulas, click Reviewing > Changes > Remove sheet protection (Review > Changes > Unprotect Sheet).
If you entered a password when setting sheet protection, a dialog box will appear. Remove sheet protection (Unprotect Sheet) prompting you to enter a password. Enter it in the field Password (Password) and press OK. If you did not enter a password when you set the sheet protection, then the protection will be removed without additional confirmation.
Select the cells in which the formulas were previously hidden, right-click on them and select Cell format (Format Cells). In the dialog box Cell format (Format Cells) tab Protection (Protection) uncheck the box Hide formulas (Hidden).
Another way to hide formulas from prying eyes is to replace the formulas with their values and save the workbook with a different file name. After that, you can grant access to the book for other users.
Hiding text that doesn’t fit
If you enter too much text into a cell in Excel, it will overflow and overlap adjacent cells. For example, text entered in a cell A1 in the picture below, overlaps the cells from B1 to E1.
If we enter text into a cell B1, then the non-fitting text from the cell A1 will be covered by cell text B1.
If you want to hide text that doesn’t fit in a cell, in our example it’s a cell A1, without entering anything in adjacent cells, right-click on the cell and select from the context menu Cell format (Format Cells).
In the dialog box Cell format (Format Cells) open tab Alignment (Alignment). In drop down list Horizontally (horizontal) select Filled (Fill). Click OKto save changes and close the dialog box.
All text in a cell A1out of bounds will be hidden even if the cell B1 empty.
To prevent adjacent cells from overlapping with text that does not fit, the Carry by words (Wrap Text). Select the cell whose text is out of bounds and open the dialog box Cell format (Format Cells). On the tab Alignment (Alignment) check the box for the parameter Carry by words (Wrap Text). Click OKto save changes and close the dialog box.
When you turn on text wrapping in a cell, the height of that cell changes to fit all the text. If you want to keep the default height (15) for this row, then right-click on the row number and select Row height (Row Height).
In the dialog box Row height (Row Height) enter the value “15” and press OK.
The line height will change, and all text that does not fit into the cell at this height will be hidden.
If you don’t assign an initial height to the line and turn off the option Carry by words (Wrap Text), you will see that the text is on one line, but the height of the cell remains the same. You can either set the parameter value Row height (Row Height) equal 15, or automatically adjust the cell height for one line of text using the tool Autofit line height (AutoFit Row Height). To do this, go to the tab Home (Home) and in section Cells (Cells) click Framework (Format). In the menu that appears in the command group Cell size (Cell Size) click Autofit line height (AutoFit Row Height).
Hide the grid lines
If you are showing a table in a presentation, you can hide the grid to make the data on the sheet easier to read. There are two different ways to hide the grid on a sheet. For the first method, open the tab View (View).
In section Show (Show) uncheck the line Сетка (Gridlines).
Method two: open a tab Page layout (Page Layout).
In section Sheet options (Sheet Options) in the options group Сетка (Gridlines) uncheck the line Show (View).
Remember that in Excel you can hide elements such as cells, rows and columns, as well as sheets and even an entire workbook.