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: Hiding Errors on Printouts.

Hiding Errors on Printouts

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 6, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 2002 and 2003


Excel has a number of different errors that can appear in your worksheet, for any number of reasons. Errors values show up with a pound (hash) symbol followed by the type of error, as in #DIV/0! or #N/A.

When you print your worksheet, Excel prints the error values, by default. If you prefer, you can choose to have Excel not print the error values. Follow these steps:

  1. Choose Page Setup from the File menu. Excel displays the Page Setup dialog box.
  2. Make sure the Sheet tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The Sheet tab of the Page Setup dialog box.

  4. Use the Cell Errors As drop-down list to specify how you want the error values printed.
  5. Click OK to close the Page Setup dialog box.

In step 3, you have several options in the drop-down list:

  • Displayed. Prints the error values as they show in the worksheet.
  • <Blank>. Replaces the error value with a blank; effectively hides the error values.
  • --. Replaces the error value with two dashes.
  • #N/A. Replaces all error values with #N/A.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2989) 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: Hiding Errors on Printouts.

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

Conditionally Formatting for Multiple Date Comparisons

When you compare dates in a conditional formatting rule, you need to be careful how you put your comparisons together. Do ...

Discover More

Examining Tracked Changes in a Macro

The Track Changes feature in Word is very handy when you need to see what edits are made to a document. Using a macro, ...

Discover More

Searching for Wildcards

Wildcard characters can be used within the Find and Replace tool, but what if you want to actually search for those ...

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)

Showing Filter Criteria on a Printout

When you print out a filtered worksheet, you may want some sort of printed record as to what filtering was applied to the ...

Discover More

Printing Rows Conditionally

Need to only print out certain rows from your data? It's easy to do if you apply the filtering or sorting techniques ...

Discover More

Printing Based on Cell Contents

Would you like to have a worksheet automatically printed when a particular cell contains a specified value? You can ...

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.

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 3 + 9?

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.