Knowledge Base

;;; number format fails to hide cell contents in Excel for Mac

Article ID: 178866

Article Last Modified on 1/22/2007

APPLIES TO

This article was previously published under Q178866

SYMPTOMS

When you format a cell with the following number format

;;;

the contents of the cell may still appear.

CAUSE

This problem occurs when the cell contains more than 1,024 characters.

WORKAROUND

To hide the contents of a cell that contains more than 1,024 characters, follow these steps:
  1. Select the cell that contains characters you want to hide.
  2. On the Format menu, click Conditional Formatting.
  3. Under Condition 1, click Formula Is. Then, in the formula box, type =ISERROR(VALUE(<address>)) where <address> is the address of the active cell (for example, A1).
  4. Click Format. Select the Font tab. Then, in the Color box, select White (or the color of the cell background), and click OK.
  5. Click OK.
Note that you still must apply the ;;; number format to the cell; the conditional formatting only hides the cell contents when the contents exceed 1,024 characters in length.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

MORE INFORMATION

In Microsoft Excel, you can hide the contents of a cell by applying the ;;; number format to the cell. To do this, follow these steps:
  1. Select the cells you want to format.
  2. On the Format menu, click Cells. Then, select the Number tab.
  3. In the Category list, select Custom. Then, in the Type box, type ;;; and click OK.
When you format a cell with this number format, the characters in the cell are hidden, unless the contents exceed 1,024 characters in length.

Additional query words: XL98 general XL2001 XLX XL2004

Keywords: kbbug kbpending KB178866


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