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Excel Hiding Data in Plain Site - Episode 919

591 views · Published 31 December 2008 · 2:00 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: MrExcel.com · 2008 · Education

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Microsoft Excel Tutorial: Custom Number Format to "Hide" Data in Excel.

Welcome back to the MrExcel netcast! In this episode, we're going to share a helpful tip from our viewer Jamie in the UK. If you have data that you want to hide in Excel without actually hiding the column, there's a simple trick you can use. In a previous podcast, I showed how changing the font color to white can make the data appear hidden. However, Jamie pointed out a flaw in this method - if you select the hidden data, it will still appear in white. Plus, if someone changes the background color, the data will suddenly become visible. So, Jamie has a better solution that we're excited to share with you.

To hide data in Excel, select the cells you want to hide and press Ctrl+1 to open the Format Cells dialog box. Then, go to the Custom Number format and enter three semicolons (;;;) as the format. This tells Excel to display nothing for any positive, negative, zero, or text values in those cells. Now, the data will not appear even when selected, and it won't print either. This is a great way to keep sensitive data hidden from prying eyes.

We want to thank Jamie for sending us this excellent tip and for being a loyal viewer. As we wrap up 2008, we want to wish all of our viewers a happy New Year and we look forward to bringing you more helpful Excel tips in 2009. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe to our channel for more Excel hacks and tricks. Thanks for watching and we'll see you in the next episode!"

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Jamie from Hampshire UK offers a better way for hiding data in cells. Rather than changing the font color to white, you can use this custom number format. Episode 919 shows you how.

This video is the podcast companion to the book, Learn Excel 97-2007 from MrExcel. Download a new two minute video every workday to learn one of the 377 tips from the book! Buy Bill Jelen's latest Excel book: https://www.mrexcel.com/products/latest/

Table of Contents
(0:00) Theme music
(0:22) Hide Excel data with white font
(0:53) Use Excel Number format ;;;
(1:20) Clicking Like really helps the algorithm

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