Excel/not being able to view contents in a cell | Excel forum

Hi Liz,

Thank you for your question.

The following will hide the contents but I am not aware of a method for showing that there is text in a cell without clicking on it. However you can lock the cell so it can't be edited.

If you select the cell with the text in and using the keyboard press Ctrl+1 and that should bring up the Format Cells box. Select Custom from the Number Types and type the following into the Custom box:

;;;

When you click ok, the contents are hidden. Unfortunately, you can still see the text in the formula bar. To overcome this challenge, select the cell and go to Format Cells and choose the Protection tab. Now click the Hidden box.

The next step is to protect the worksheet or cell via the Tools menu with a password. This now means unless people have that password they cannot see the contents of the cell.

I hope this answers your question.

Regards

Simon