Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2002 and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Turning Off Error Checking.

Turning Off Error Checking

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 19, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 2002 and 2003

While you have Excel 2002 or Excel 2003 open, it is constantly checking in the background for potential errors in your worksheets. If an error is located (or, at the least, what Excel thinks is an error), then the cell is "flagged" with a small green triangle in the upper-left corner of the cell.

If you don't want Excel to check for errors, you can turn the feature off by following these steps in Excel 2002 or Excel 2003:

  1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. Excel displays the Options dialog box.
  2. Make sure the Error Checking tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)

    3. Figure 1. The Error Checking tab of the Options dialog box.

  3. Clear the Enable Background Error Checking check box.
  4. Click OK.

Any existing green triangles should disappear, and Excel stops checking for errors.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2369) applies to Microsoft Excel 2002 and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Turning Off Error Checking.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Sharing Headings with Others

Headings form the outline of your document and hopefully give it an easy-to-follow organization. If you want to share ...

Discover More

Printing a Worksheet List

Want a list of all the worksheets in your workbook? Here's a short, handy macro that will place all the worksheet names ...

Discover More

Extracting Numbers within a Range

If you have a large number of values in a column, you may want to move the values that meet specific criteria to another ...

Discover More

Solve Real Business Problems Master business modeling and analysis techniques with Excel and transform data into bottom-line results. This hands-on, scenario-focused guide shows you how to use the latest Excel tools to integrate data from multiple tables. Check out Microsoft Excel Data Analysis and Business Modeling today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Getting Audible Feedback

Want to get a little bit of sound with your data? Excel can provide audible feedback that you may find helpful. Here's how.

Discover More

Controlling Display of Page Breaks

Do you want page breaks displayed on the screen? Excel allows you to specify whether it should show those page breaks or not.

Discover More

Seeing Excel's Program Window

Have you ever opened Excel to find that the window you saw yesterday is not the same as it is today? Sometimes, for ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 9 + 7?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.