Controlling Display of the Status Bar

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 19, 2019)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

The status bar is the area at the bottom of the Excel window which indicates information about the current spreadsheet. If you need more room to view a spreadsheet, or you don't need the information provided by the status bar, you can turn it off. To control display of the status bar, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. You will see the Options dialog box.
  2. Make sure the View tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)

    3. Figure 1. The View tab of the Options dialog box.

  3. Click on the Status Bar check box. If the check box is selected, then the status bar will be displayed; if not selected, it will not be displayed.
  4. Click on OK.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2643) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

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

Converting Endnotes to Regular Text

If you have a document with lots of endnotes, you may need them converted to regular text so that they can be used ...

Discover More

Copying Formulas using a Pattern

Copying formulas from one cell to another is quite intuitive in Excel—unless you want the copied formulas to follow ...

Discover More

Pulling Initial Letters from a String

When working with names or a different series of words, you may need to pull the initial letters from each word in the ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Grouping and Ungrouping Objects

When you add multiple graphic objects in a worksheet, it can often be beneficial to group those objects together. Here's ...

Discover More

Adding Drop Shadows

Want your shapes to really "pop" off the page? Add a drop shadow to them, as described in this tip.

Discover More

Creating a Drawing Object

Creating simple drawing objects is easy in Excel. All you need to do is use the tools made available on the Drawing toolbar.

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 four minus 4?

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 © 2026 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.