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How to quickly hide cell values in Excel?

Author Sun Last modified

In some cases, when we send a worksheet or workbook to others, we may want to hide some important or private cells from others viewing. This tutorial will help you to quickly solve this problem in Excel.

Hide cell values with Format Cells function

Quickly hide cell from viewing by other with Kutools for Excel good idea3

arrow blue right bubble Hide cell values with Format Cells function

In Excel, you can format the cells to achieve hiding cell values.

1. Select the cells you want to hide values, and right click to select Format Cells from context menu. See screenshot:

select Format Cells from context menu

2. In the Format Cells dialog, under Number tab, select Custom from the Category list, and type ;;; into the textbox under Type. See screenshot:

specify cell formatting in the dialog box

3. Click OK. Then the cell values are hidden.

the cell values are hidden

But this method just can prevent other from viewing the cells in outside, if others click at the cell, they can view the cell value in the formula bar. See screenshot:

if click at the cell, the cell value is displayed in the formula bar

Fortunately, next I introduce a good solution to completely hide the cell values from others.

arrow blue right bubble Quickly hide cell from viewing by other with Kutools for Excel

With Kutools for Excelā€™s Encrypt Cells feature, you can set a password and encrypt the selected cells, the users who do not know the password cannot view the real values of the cells.

Kutools for Excel offers over 300 advanced features to streamline complex tasks, boosting creativity and efficiency. Itegarate with AI capabilities, Kutools automates tasks with precision, making data management effortless. Detailed information of Kutools for Excel...         Free trial...

After free installing Kutools for Excel, please do as below:

1. Select the cells you want to hide and click Kutools Plus > Encrypt Cells. See screenshot:

click Kutools Plus > Encrypt Cells

2. Then in the popping dialog type and confirm the password and the encrypting type. See screenshot:

the cells are decoded

. Click Ok or Apply. Now the cells are decoded. And whatever you click outside or inside of the cells, the real values cannot be viewed.

type and confirm the password and the encrypting type

Note:

If you want to show it again, you can select the cells and click Kutools Plus > Decrypt Cells, and type the correct password into the popping dialog, then click Ok > OK.

Kutools Plus > Decrypt Cells to show cell values again

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