Hide formulas from appearing in the edit bar

Excel 2016 2013 2010 2007 2003
You can usually view formulas in an Excel cell when the cell is selected, but you can protect a spreadsheet by hiding the formulas in some cells.

If you select the cell with a formula, it will be visible in the edit bar:

Edit bar in Excel 365

To hide the formula in the edit bar, do the following:

   1.   Select the cell(s) that you wish to hide the formulas for, right-click on it, and select Format Cells... from the popup menu (or click Ctrl+Shift+F):

Format cells in popup menu Excel 365

   2.   In the Format Cells dialog box, on the Protection tab, check the Hidden checkbox and then click OK:

Protection, Hidden cells in Excel 365

   3.   Protect the spreadsheet. To do this, follow the next steps:

   3.1.   On the Review tab, in the Protect group, click the Protect Sheet button:

Protect Sheet in Excel 365

   3.2.   In the Protect Sheet dialog box, on the Password to unprotect sheet box, type a password for the sheet, if you wish (Password is optional - see Protect Excel spreadsheet options for more details), and then click OK:

Protect Sheet in Excel 365

After that, the formula will no longer be displayed in the edit bar when the cell is selected.

Edit bar in Excel 365

See also this tip in French: Masquer les formules pour qu'elles apparaissent dans la barre d'édition.

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